A Turn of Events
by oblivious-massacre
Summary: After SK. Dimitri doesn't leave. Rose is pregnant. The queen sends them away to raise the child. Something is stalking them. What will happen? T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: My computer has been broken down for a while. In fact, when we got the computer fixed the internet box broke. Yeah, it sucks. But, this is my first VA story. I've written others, and I'll put them up, but in my opinion they suck. I really didn't know where I was going with them.**

**Well, I wrote this story a little while ago, before the internet got back up, and I don't know if I should continue it or not. I really love Dimitri and Rose, so let me know who you want Rose to end up with in VA.**

**Enjoy!**

How was I going to tell him? This was something I'd been thinking about for hours. I sat on the couch thinking that maybe I should tell Lissa first. She would know what to do. On the other hand, what if she didn't like how things had turned out? Ugh. This was just too much. This was going to ruin my life. I wouldn't be able to be a guardian anymore. I knew that it was something that I should be happy about, I mean it's a miracle for Dimitri and I to be able to have a child, but this wasn't the time to do it.

I'd only found out hours ago. I hadn't told anyone because I wanted to think things through first. I wanted to run to Dimitri. I wanted to let him hold me in his arms as I cried. I knew that if I did cry I would feel a little better. That still wouldn't solve my problems, though.

I got up from the couch I was sitting on and sat right back down. I couldn't make up my mind. Did I want to go somewhere, or stay here and think? Ugh. This was all too much.

I decided against sulking in my room and went out to find Lissa. I knew she wasn't in her room through the bond. I slipped into her mind for just a moment to see that she was in the infirmary. This couldn't be good. I was about to panic, until I realized that she was there healing people. That wasn't a good thing, either, but it was better than her being injured.

Using spirit to heal people always made Lissa go a little insane. What I mean by that is that there is this darkness that creeps inside her when she uses spirit. It's a bad side-effect that I can help her with. Because I am shadow-kissed and attached to her I can take some of that darkness from her. It's what keeps her sane. Unfortunately, we have to balance how much I can take from her and how much she can keep. It's a constant struggle for the both of us.

I smiled to everyone I passed on the way to the infirmary, trying to pretend that nothing was up. Sadly, I never smiled to everyone, so I think they all knew that something was up. Oh, the woes of being Rosemarie Hathaway.

Lissa greeted me with a smile and then held up her finger in a signal for me to wait. I did as she wanted and went into the waiting room. She came out sooner than I thought she would and sat next to me. She wiped her hand across her forehead.

"Liss, are you sure you should be using so much spirit? Think about what might happen." I said.

"Rose, I know what I'm doing. I'm perfect right now. I don't feel the least bit upset, or crazy." She eyed me.

"You won't know that until you get mad at someone. Just promise me that you will try to use it a little less often. Please?" I asked.

She gave me a sincere smile. It was one of the things I loved so much about my best friend. She was so understanding. Sometimes that got on my nerves, but as of right now, I was happy. "If you think I should dull it down a bit, I will. Now, what's up?"

"Well…" How was I going to do this? There were so many people around here. Maybe I should tell her in her room or something. "Can we go back to your room?"

She looked at me, confused. "Why? Rose, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing. I just need to talk to you. I really don't want to do it around everyone, though. Is it okay if we go to your room and talk?" I replied.

She shrugged and got up. She looped her arm through mine and we went down the normal hallways of St. Vladimir's. It was a place I had called home for a long time. The school was always so…busy.

"So, Christian is meeting his aunt today at dinner." Lissa explained. Dinner would be at 6 in the morning. We run on a nocturnal schedule.

"That's nice." I replied. I was more worried about what I was about to tell her more than Tasha Ozera. Christian was Lissa's boyfriend, and a royal, like Lissa. They were Moroi vampires, and I was a Dhampir, meaning a guardian. Half-Moroi, Half-human. I know, it's weird.

There were also other vampires, Strigoi. They were the bad ones. Evil. They would take your life without even thinking twice. They lived for blood and power. They didn't have feelings. They were horrible creatures that tried to kill us daily. That's why Moroi needed Dhampirs. We were trained from a very early age to fight and kill Strigoi.

"Rose, are you okay?" Lissa asked.

"Yes, I'm fine." I replied, giving her a smile. She took that as a good sign and let it go. We turned around a corner and saw Dimitri at my door. Oh no.

Dimitri was my mentor. He taught me everything he knew, meaning he was a Dhampir also. He'd been the one to bring Lissa and I back when we ran away from St. Vlad's. I was going to be expelled after that incident, but he convinced them to let me stay. He told them that he would catch me up. Well, he did. I was one of the best at St. Vlad's. I was the youngest Dhampir to kill a Strigoi. Pretty impressive, I know.

Anyways, Dimitri and I became close as we trained. The bad thing is that I developed feelings for him. He returned those feelings, but was very careful about it. That is, up until recently. We'd known about our feelings for a while, but because of the age difference - he was 24, I was 17 - we were never able to be together. Well, a couple of weeks ago we'd lost control and done _it_.

He told me after that that we would be together no matter what. We would always be close to each other and he didn't care who knew about us. I believed him, and he'd kept his promise. We went on open dates, and didn't care who saw us. Yes, there were some who thought it was horrible, but we didn't care. We loved each other.

Now here he was, probably waiting for me to get back in order to go somewhere or talk together. And he looked like a God. Most people thought Lissa was the one who looked like a Goddess, but all Moroi did. They all had white skin that was flawless, and they were all tall. None were ugly, and somehow they were all graceful. Lissa had long blonde hair that shown white in the light. She also had beautiful blue eyes. These were from her father, who died with the rest of her family in a car crash.

No. To me, Dimitri was a God. He was six foot six inches tall, with long brown hair that went to his shoulders. It was one shade lighter than my brown hair. Mine was curly, but his was straight. His was pulled in a pony tail at the nape of his neck. He had muscles, but wasn't bulky, and had a beautiful tan. His big brown eyes always made me get lost when I looked into them.

I also had brown eyes, but not nearly as amazing as his were. I was your typical Dhampir girl: curvy, big breasts, and tan. What I also had were muscles better than most of the guys here and a rare attitude. Most people here learned from an early age that there was a certain way you were to act in society. I, on the other hand, had seen through their attempts and was the "rotten" one.

Dimitri lit up when he saw me. I did the same, momentarily forgetting my problems. Lissa rolled her eyes. She was surprised when I told her Dimitri and I were together, but she didn't put up a protest. That was why I loved Liss so much. She was my brick at times.

"Go ahead and talk to him. I'll go to my room and wait for you, okay?" She winked and headed to her room. I took a deep breath and headed over to Dimitri.

"Hey." I smiled as I walked up to him. He kissed my cheek and smiled right back at me.

"I've been waiting for you. I thought we could have dinner in my room, if you want." It was so hard to resist him, but I knew that I couldn't tonight. I needed to be with Lissa and figure some things out. I couldn't be with him, knowing that I was going to have his baby, and not tell him.

"Actually, Liss and I were going to have a girl's night. I hope you don't mind." I smiled brightly at him, knowing that he would play into it.

He shook his head and looked at the ground. "You aren't planning something that's going to get you into trouble again, are you?" He knew me way too well.

I laughed. "Not tonight, comrade." He laughed at my using of his nickname. He also had another nickname that I didn't call him but once or twice. Dimka. It was something only close relatives and friends called him. I knew I shouldn't, but I felt that it was something I couldn't use. I felt like it was special.

"Well, then I suppose it's alright." He kissed my forehead. "Get some sleep. Tomorrow morning we start early. Five-thirty." Which, of course, was five-thirty in the evening.

Ugh. One thing about Dimitri: he takes guarding seriously. It's something that he is very passionate about and that's why he's trained me so well. I admired him for that, but sometimes it was a little too much. He laughed at my expression and turned around.

I was about to turn around when I heard him say, "And Roza?" There went my nickname. I looked back at him. "I love you."

That made me melt. I had to fight the urge to giggle like a schoolgirl, which, trust me, wasn't like me at all. "I love you, too." That just felt so great to say.

I was giddy all the way to Lissa's room. That is, until I remembered what I was going to tell her. I slipped into her room and noticed she was sitting on her bed reading a magazine. That was so like Lissa. She didn't watch TV, like the rest of us. She liked to read. I didn't think that magazines counted since they were mostly pictures, but we'd debated and it turned out that they count as reading. Go figure.

She put the magazine - _Seventeen_, I noticed - on her nightstand and smiled at me. "Now, what is it that you want to tell me?" she asked.

"I never said I wanted to tell you anything." It slipped out before I could stop myself from sounding suspicious.

She frowned. "Well, no, but I figured that you did want to tell me something. Rose?" She looked at me with the suspicion that I knew was coming. What to do now? Blurt it out? Take my time? Ugh!

"I…uh…" I didn't know how I was going to do this. I took a deep breath. Lissa's hand was suddenly on mine.

"You can tell me anything, Rose. You know that, right? I'm your best friend. You have my full attention, and if it's something you want me to keep a secret, I'm not going to tell anyone." she reassured.

"Have you felt something through the bond?" Normally, Lissa couldn't feel anything through the bond. It only went one way. I could feel her emotions, slip into her mind, and pinpoint her if I needed to. She couldn't do any of that.

Again, she looked at me with suspicious eyes. "I just think that if we have to be in my room for you to tell me, then it's a secret. Rose, really, I'm getting worried. Just spit it out."

Okay, that last part wasn't like Lissa. She really was worried. I looked into her eyes and suddenly knew that it would be okay. She would help me get through this. "Well…you remember when you were getting hurt by that gang, and the darkness took over me a few weeks ago?" I asked.

"You mean, when Dimitri stopped you from basically killing people? Yes, I remember that. Why?" she asked.

I cleared my throat. "Dimitri took me to a guardian cabin out in the forest after that to get me under control." I paused to think about how I was going to say this. "I realized what had happened to me, and broke down. This…this caused me to give in to my feelings with Dimitri. It's what caused us to come out and tell everyone that we're together."

"Oh. Is that what this was all about?" she asked, with a smile. She looked relieved.

"Actually, there's more." She sighed. "Dimitri and I…well, we…we sort of…" I grimaced, letting her know what happened.

"Oh." she said. "Ooooh." She drew it out in understanding. Her eyes widened. "You mean you and Dimitri had…_sex_?" She whispered the last word.

I laughed internally at this. Lissa, herself, had lost her virginity before me, so it amazed me that she had to whisper…well, you know.

I nodded. "Wow. I didn't think you would share something like that with me, Rose. I really didn't." she told me, honestly.

"Well, that's not all I want to tell you."

She raised her eyebrows. "Rose…" I think she was starting to get where I was coming from. "Did you… Are you…pregnant?"

It was my turn to grimace this time. "A little?" I replied. Her mouth dropped to the floor. I'm pretty sure I heard the pang of the contact when it did. I didn't open my eyes to find out if I was right.

"Rose…does Dimitri know?" she asked.

I opened my eyes. "Actually…I was hoping you could enlighten me on that."

"Rose!" she yelped. She actually shot off the bed. I instinctively took a step back. "You _have _to tell him. This isn't something you keep to yourself, especially the…father. Wait a minute." She stood there in thought.

I knew what she was thinking. How could I be pregnant with Dimitri's child? Well, it wasn't simple for me to figure out, either. The only way a Dhampir could become pregnant was when they had sex with a Moroi. Having sex with another Dhampir did nothing, for reasons we didn't know. So, how could I be pregnant with Dimitri's child? My guess was that being shadow-kissed had something to do with it.

Shadow-kissed means that I was brought back to life. I have been touched by death. It allows me to see ghosts, and call upon them, but only in dire need. It is also why I am bonded to Lissa. Remember when I said that she could heal people because she had a power called spirit? Well, she can also bring things back to life. And by things, I mean people, too.

I was in the crash that killed Lissa's family. I died, too. Lissa brought me back. She did it on accident, not knowing that she had the power to do so. You see, every Moroi has a special power. Earth, Fire, Water, Air, and - now - Spirit. We didn't know about spirit until very recently.

"I know, I know. I think it's because I'm shadow-kissed." I told her.

She was brought out of her thoughts by my theory. "That's the only thing that makes sense." She got up and opened the door.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I'm going to go find Dimitri and have him come back here. Rose, you have to tell him." she replied.

"Lissa…I don't know if I can. I don't know how he'll take it." I replied.

"Rose, I can tell you already. First, he'll be surprised and think about it. You'll tell him your theory and then he'll be ecstatic. Believe me. If Dimitri loves you as much as you say he does, then there will be no problem. You guys will work something out." she replied, assuring me before she left the room.

I took a deep breath and sat on her bed. I looked down at my stomach. Nothing showed, it was too soon, but I knew there was a tiny being inside me, and, to be honest, it scared me to death. Was I going to be able to take care of something so fragile and delicate? Would I be able to guard Lissa after I had the baby? Questions that ran over and over in my head with no solutions appearing.

A part of me wished that I'd never been shadow-kissed, but there was another part that knew I wouldn't be alive if it weren't for it. I just wished that there was an owner's manual to it. That would've saved me a lot of the trouble I'd had.

I picked up Lissa's magazine and read the front. There was a tiny magazine in the middle of the magazine itself that was a jeans guide. It showed you which jeans would compliment your figure best. I decided to check it out, knowing that jeans were the least of my worries. Soon, I wouldn't be able to wear jeans. I winced.

The rest of the magazine was stuff about experimenting with makeup, doing new hairdos, and embarrassing stories that people had sent in. Some of them were really funny, but most were just normal teenage things. That is, normal for teenagers who didn't live in my world.

There was a knock on the door. It was open, and a sexy God-like Dhampir stood in it. He looked at me with concern and closed the door. He took a deep breath before turning around. I wondered what that was about. I patted the spot beside me on the bed and he sat down. He wouldn't look me in the eyes.

"The Princess said that you had something to tell me." he said. Oh, yeah. I told you that Lissa was royal, right? Well, she was a Princess. The last Dragomir Princess, to be exact. There were eleven other royal vampire families. They made up the council that was basically our government.

"Yes." I wanted to take his hand, but decided against it. Maybe Lissa wasn't so dead-on about his reaction, the way things were going.

He waited for me to go on and when I didn't he said, "Go on."

"I…um…" I took a deep breath. "Well, I…" Oh no. I couldn't do this. I had to get out of here. Run, Rose, run! I hopped up and hit my hands on my thighs. Ouch, that kind of stung. "I think I'm going to get a drink." I turned to go to Lissa's fridge.

"Roza." That one word had me stopping in my tracks. I didn't like the way it sounded. Like he was heart-broken. Had Lissa told him, and he was upset? Or was he upset that I hadn't told him? I turned around to look at him, but realized he was now standing right in front of me. I hated it that he could sneak up on me like that. He took my hand and looked in my eyes. I quickly looked away.

"If… If you don't want me anymore, all you had to do was say so." he said.

"What?" I shrieked. Where had that come from? "That wasn't what I was going to say at all. Dimitri, did you think I was going to…break up with you?" I asked. I hadn't quite known what to say at the "break up" part.

"Rose, you aren't going to…break up with me?" His face lit up.

"Of course not." I took his face in my hands. He closed his eyes and leaned into them. "I love you."

"Oh, Roza, I love you, too. So much. That's why I was so worried." he replied.

"You never have to worry about that. Ever." I assured.

"Well, then, what do I have to worry about?" he asked, making me remember what he was brought here to be told. He seemed less worried now. He was still a little bit worried, but I could see that he was greatly relieved. I wasn't. I still wanted to run away.

"Um…" I looked at the ground. My hands let go of his face and were drifting down to my sides when he took them in his hands. They were so warm. I loved him so much. "There's something I have to tell you."

He laughed. "Yes, I knew that much. Now, tell me the rest, Rose." I looked up at him. He was looking at me with those big brown eyes that made me get lost all the time. Dang. How had I snagged him? The thought made me smile. He smiled, too. "Yes, Rose?"

I cleared my throat and wiped the smile off of my face. This was something that did not require smiling. I decided to take the other path to telling Dimitri than I had with Lissa. Instead of explaining, I could just say it with one quick breath. Which is exactly what I did.

"Iamgoingtohaveababy." I said in one word.

"What?" Dimitri asked. I could tell he'd picked up at least a little of it. His hands were now gripping mine tight.

"I'm going to-"

"Shh, Roza, I heard you." he interrupted. I looked up at him. His eyes were filled with rage. "Who's is it?"

I took a step back. "Yours." I said simply. Calm down, Rose. He's just as confused as you were in the beginning. He cocked his head to one side and brought his eyebrows together in confusion.

"How is that possible?" he asked.

I took that moment to set things straight. "What? Do you not want it to be yours?" I asked.

He was right in front of me in an instant. I'd been looking at the ground, and he made me face him. "Roza…" He brought his lips to mine and kissed me until I couldn't breathe. I was a little light-headed after that. "How?" he asked, bringing me back to the situation.

"I think it's because I'm shadow-kissed." I explained.

"And you're sure it's mine?" he asked.

I tried to raise an eyebrow and failed. Instead I fake-gasped. "You think I've slept with someone else, comrade?"

He laughed at this and shook his head. "Leave it to you, Rose, to make a situation like this light." Through his joking, I knew he was still as confused as I was. This kind of made me upset.

I clasped my hands together behind my back and looked at a wall beside me. "You don't…have to help me…raise it." I assured. I heard his sharp intake of breath. Suddenly, I wasn't on the ground anymore. A strong Dhampir had me in his arms.

"You think I would leave you and my…" He stared at me for a moment. "I mean, _our _child?"

Then we kissed until Lissa kicked us out of her room.

**A/N: Okay, so I really hope this gave you a little taste of what's to come. Tell me what you think, and I'll keep going ;)**

**~Oblivious~**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Well, you guys did like it :) So, here is the next chapter. This one brings a little more to the plot in my opinion. But I loved the first chapter more because it's more of Dimitri and Rose. But anyways…**

Although Dimitri didn't freak out and leave me, I still felt uncomfortable. I still didn't know what to do with my life now. Would they let me graduate in my condition? Would I have to wait an extra year? I was on the verge of breaking down.

After my talk with Dimitri, I went back to my room and slept. I felt like I slept forever, but I actually slept for an hour. It was the longest night of my life. I finally found myself in a comfortable slumber. I guess I hadn't been paying attention to the actual lack of sleep I got from my tossing and turning because my internal alarm would usually wake me up at about five to get dressed and meet Dimitri. Well, that didn't happen today.

I'd been having a dream that Christian was talking to me. Christian had sharp black hair that was long, but not as long as Dimitri's. He had ice blue eyes that were sharper than Lissa's. When he wanted something from you, all he had to do was stare hard at you and he could get it.

"Rose, I didn't know you had it in you." he said.

"What are you talking about, Sparky?" That was my nickname for him. His element was fire.

"To actually start a family. I never thought that would happen. You were such a good guardian." he replied. My heart dropped into my stomach.

"Lissa told you?" I asked.

He smiled. _Smiled! _He tried to put his hand on mine, but I pulled away. "Rose, just look at yourself."

I looked at him, puzzled. There was a full mirror on the door a few feet from me. I got up and looked. My stomach was huge. How could that happen? I'm only a few weeks along!

"No," I breathed. When I turned back around to yell at Christian for no apparent reason, he was gone. "Where did you go? Come back, you coward!"

"Rose!"

This was Dimitri waking me up. My eyes flashed open. Dimitri didn't look happy, but he wasn't angry, either. I rolled over to look at my alarm clock. It was six. Oops. Dimitri thought I was rolling back over to go to sleep, so he rolled me back towards him.

He bent down towards me and whispered in my ear, "You may feel horrible right now, Roza, but we have to put on a show."

"We're performing?" I asked, still groggy.

I felt his chest shaking. He was laughing, but I couldn't hear it. "No, Rose. We have to mask something."

I shot up out of bed and ran to the bathroom.

"Rose, what's wrong?" he yelled.

I looked into the mirror and checked myself out. Whoo. I internally wiped my brow. I looked like my normal self. Pretty tan, pretty built, and pretty. I knew I was pretty. And my stomach was as flat as it had been yesterday.

I shook my head, not realizing that Dimitri couldn't see that. He came into the bathroom behind me and saw me checking myself out. He looked down.

"Rose, there is no way you're showing this early."

I knew that. I mean, "I know that."

He looked into my eyes. I knew he was as scared as I was. This wasn't something you dealt with lightly. "Then why are you looking at yourself like that?"

"Well," I sighed. "I had a bad dream last night. I guess it's why I didn't wake up when I was supposed to. Sorry about that, by the way, comrade." I smiled at him. This brightened the mood and he took my hand.

"Get some sweats on. It's time to put on an illusion." he told me, and slipped out of the bathroom.

I was going to meet Lissa for lunch. She wanted me to spend a little time was Tasha, Christian's aunt. I liked Tasha. She was sweet and nice. She also knew how to stand up for herself. She had black hair, like Christian, that flowed down her back. Her eyes were the same blue, and she had a scar down her face from one of her battles. It didn't make her any less beautiful, though.

I needed to take a shower before I could go. I was _still _sweating after practice. It turned out that all Dimitri wanted to do today was run and practice staking on dummies. No, I don't me we took idiots and staked them. I mean we staked mannequins.

I was on my way to my room, when I ran into someone. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, so it was my fault.

"Oh, I'm sorry." I said, getting up. Then I saw who it was. "Oh, it's just you, Adrian." I smiled at him.

"Little Dhampir, I've been looking for you." he replied.

I wasn't expecting that. "Oh. What's up?"

"I wanted to invite you to a party. It's going to be a lot of fun, especially if you go with me." He gave me a wiggle of his eyebrows. Sometimes, Adrian could be a pig. At other times, he was really sweet.

He had dark hair, that he always "styled". By that, I mean he messes it up and slicks some gel onto it. Then he complains if someone touches it. He's such a girl. He had brown eyes and was gorgeous. I mean, there wasn't a girl in this school who didn't want Adrian Ivashkov. He, too, was a royal, and he was a spirit user, like Lissa. He couldn't heal as well as Lissa, but he could do some things. Like bruises, cuts, and burns.

He could walk dreams, which was something Lissa couldn't do. She tried so hard, but could never do it. Every now and then when I'm sleeping silently Adrian will slip into my dream and dress me up like a doll. He can control where we go, what's there, and what we're wearing. It could get old fast.

He was also in love with me. Well, that's not quite it. He _thinks _he's in love with me. I don't approve of it, and he knows that I don't, but he won't change his mind. Sometimes, I wished I could split myself in two. Part would go to Dimitri and part would go to Adrian. I loved them both, but if I couldn't split myself, it would be Dimitri I go to.

"When is this party?" I asked, hoping I had something conflicting it.

"It's tomorrow night. Don't even tell me you have some guardian thing to do because I've been asking around and there are no meetings planned. So, come with me." He took my hand and looked at me sweetly.

I knew this wasn't a good idea. Adrian's parties usually consisted of cigarettes, alcohol, and dirty dancing. All three weren't a good idea in my…condition. I smiled at him, but shook my head. "Not tomorrow, Adrian. I have something important I'm doing."

He frowned. "Like what?"

Out of nowhere, there were arms wrapped around my waist. I let out a yelp. I looked up into big brown eyes that had me lost instantly. I smiled.

"Oh." Adrian said.

I looked back at him. "We could always hang out some other time." I tried to make up for it. I felt like I was talking to my little brother, even though Adrian was 21.

He looked from Dimitri back to me and his face smoothed out. "That sounds wonderful, little Dhampir. I'll see you later." With that, he ran off.

Those same arms that were around my waist turned me around and brought me up to his lips. I giggled and gave in. These were some of the happiest moments in my life. I was gleaming as he set me back down.

"What did Ivashkov want?" he asked. This made my smile disappear. I hated it when those two wanted to know every last detail about the other. Didn't Dimitri know that there was no competition? I would always choose him, no matter what.

"He was inviting me to a party." I said nothing more.

"What _kind _of party?" he asked, bringing my hands up to his lips. He kissed them over and over. Every touch sent electricity through me. I couldn't answer. I closed my eyes and he laughed.

I immediately opened them and blushed. "What?" I asked, looking at the ground.

"You are so beautiful, Roza." he replied.

Of course, that made my pink blush turn scarlet. Why was I blushing so much? It was like I wasn't under control anymore. I didn't blush this often. His next sentence brought me out of it.

"So, what kind of party?" he asked. This time he wanted his answer.

I shook my head and looked at him. He was wrong. He was the beautiful one here. "A typical one for Adrian." I shrugged my shoulders.

His eyes narrowed and bore into mine. "And you told him why you couldn't go?"

This wasn't the real question he was asking me. He was really asking, "And you told him that you're pregnant?" I rolled my eyes.

"Do I look that stupid? Come on, comrade, really." I laughed.

"What did you tell him?" He was curious.

Was it just me or were people too curious lately? I should start a show that would enable them to hound me with questions 24/7. I knew that would make them happy. "That I had other plans."

He smiled at me. "Good. Because you do."

Again, the blush came. "What would that be?"

Before he could answer, a scream erupted through the hallway. Dimitri and I immediately got into our fighting stances, hands on our stakes. We straightened up when we realized that it was just Lissa running towards me, yelling my name.

"Rose! Rose!" she was yelling. It was like if she didn't yell to me, I was going to disappear. I didn't notice it until she got close to me, but she was crying. I closed the distance between us and grabbed her arms.

"What is it, Liss? What's wrong?" I hated seeing her like this. My best friend had a lot of enemies, it seemed, and I was afraid that another one had tried to attack her.

"It's…it's the queen. She's here, for you." she said.

"What?" Dimitri and I said at the same time.

"She doesn't approve of you and Dimitri. I don't know what she's going to do, but it can't be good. She's in the guest room right now, but I think she's going to call you in for lunch. I only know because I was there when she arrived. One of the people there said that she was looking for you." she explained.

I locked my jaw. My back straightened and I kept my head high. There was no way she was taking Dimitri away from me. I wouldn't allow it. I just got him! And…and we were going to have a baby. She didn't know that, but it was true.

"Rose." That was Dimitri. I was going to turn, but I guess I took too long for him. He turned me around himself and looked into my eyes. "Nothing is going to happen. We are going to be fine. We won't be away from each other; I promise you."

I hadn't noticed, but I was stunned speechless. I had no idea what to say. So much was running through my head. I didn't know what I was going to do. What if she wouldn't allow us to be together here or at court? What if she tried to separate us? Would Dimitri give up his guardian life that he loved so much just to be with me? I doubted it, but there was still a sliver of hope.

He crushed me to his chest, knowing that I would say nothing. He stroked my hair and said soothing things. Things that I wasn't listening to but knew from his tone that they were soothing. As he was doing this, I knew that everything would be okay. I had to get a hold of myself. We would survive anything we went through. I knew it. We would find some way to be together.

I pulled back from him. My mind was made up. "I love you." I told him.

"I love you, too, Roza." He sighed. I realized that half of the reason why he was holding me was to comfort himself. Everything that he was saying was half for him. I quickly grabbed his hands.

"We're going to be okay. I promise that nothing will keep us apart. We may have to…keep it long distance for a little while, but as soon as I'm eighteen, it will be okay." I replied.

Lissa tugged on my arm. "Rose, can I speak with you for a second? Is that okay, Dimitri?" He nodded and let go of my hands. I walked a little down the hallway with her. She sighed.

I wondered what she was thinking. It couldn't be good by the look on her face. I wondered if maybe she was keeping something to herself. Something she didn't want to say in front of Dimitri.

"Rose, what are we going to tell her about the baby?" Lissa said.

"Nothing." That was an automatic response, but it was still true. We would say nothing to the queen about me being…well, you know.

"What about when you start showing? I mean, people will be able to do the math." Her eyes were burning holes into my head.

"What are you…?" I trailed off. I knew what she was saying now. I was 17 when Dimitri and I got together. We obeyed human laws, as well as vampire laws. Well, except for killing Strigoi. That was the only exception. "Oh no."

"I'm not saying that they'll put Dimitri in jail. I mean, you'll be eighteen by the time you start showing. You only have two weeks until your birthday. By then, you will be able to say that you wanted it. I'm just…I'm not so sure the queen will accept it." she replied.

I knew why she thought that. It was because Queen Tatiana hated me. She thought that I'd been trying to get with Adrian the last time I saw her. Sorry, but no. She yelled at me and told me to stay away from him. She had some giant plan for Lissa and Adrian to get together. I knew that would never happen. Lissa loved Christian too much.

"She'll have to. I'll do whatever it takes to keep Dimitri safe. I love him." This was more to myself than to Lissa. She turned me around and took me back to Dimitri.

"You do what you have to, Rose. I'm behind you 100 percent. Just know this: I really don't want you to leave me." Wow, that hurt. I knew she didn't want me to leave, but what choice would I have if they wanted to put Dimitri behind bars?

I needed time to think. I didn't want to leave them when they were offering me comfort, but I didn't want to be around other people when something so serious was affecting me. I didn't like it when other people could see my emotions.

I took my time getting to my room. I wanted as much time as possible to think things through. If I went slow to and from my room, it would give me more time. At least, that's what I thought at the time. It turns out, something came up, like always.

I turned the corner to walk straight into one of my friends, Eddie. He was a Dhampir like me. He took guarding just as seriously as Dimitri did, but he also goofed around a lot, too. Before Dimitri and I got together, he'd been closed off. He didn't goof around with me and he didn't smile a lot, either. Looking back, I could see just how hard he had to fight himself to keep control.

"Oh, hey, Rose. I heard about the queen being here to see you. That sucks." he said.

Like I didn't know that. "Yeah. It's crazy, right?"

He smiled but it wasn't for long. "Listen, don't let it get to you. I'm pretty sure things are going to be alright." He looked as if he knew something. He went to walk away, but I stopped him.

"Eddie, do you know something that I don't?" I asked.

He looked everywhere but at my face. "Let's just say…Adrian really does like you."

Oh no. In my shock, I let Eddie go, and he ran off. What had Adrian done? Was this all his fault? Or was Eddie talking about Adrian getting me out of this mess? Whatever it was, I didn't know if I liked it. Yeah, if Adrian could get me out, it would be great, but then I would owe him and that was something I didn't want.

I ran back to my room and took a long shower. It felt really good, and I decided that I didn't want to think about the queen anymore. I would take whatever was coming at me in stride. It didn't matter if she wanted Dimitri and I apart. I would do whatever I had to to be with him.

Things were a lot better once I got my attitude in check. I ran off to meet Lissa for lunch. She was happy to see me in a better mood. To my surprise, she invited Dimitri to lunch. Also, to my surprise, she invited Adrian. I didn't like that surprise.

What was even worse was that I was in the middle of the two. They were fighting over me without saying a word. There was no fight to be fought, my mind was made up. Dimitri knew that, but he wouldn't just let Adrian be with me all he wanted.

We were having a pretty good lunch, besides the jealousy, when one of the queen's guards came in the room.

"Rosemarie Hathaway, the queen has requested your presence. She also wants to see you, Guardian Belikov."

Oh no. How many times was I going to say that today? I got up and walked over to him, reaching for Dimitri's hand as I did. He squeezed it to let me know that everything was going to be okay. I really did hope he was right. I wanted to kiss him right then, but we couldn't stop.

The queen was in the headmaster's room for her stay. It was, apparently, where she had been having all of her meetings. She had a lot of business to take care of, from what I heard. There had been some rumors going on that she was soon to take over St. Vladimir's. I highly doubted it, but at the moment it seemed to be coming true.

She smiled as Dimitri and I walked in, which surprised me. One - she didn't like me, and two - Dimitri and I were holding hands, making our relationship known.

"Leave us." she said to her guards. Two stayed inside, never leaving the queen. I knew what that was like, having trained once or twice outside of St. Vlad's.

I decided to get down to business. I sighed. "What's this all about?" I asked. Dimitri squeezed my hand in disapproval.

The queen raised her eyebrow and…smiled? Why was she smiling?

"Rose, how long has…this been going on?" she asked, looking at our hands.

"Not long. Why?" I replied.

"Rose, watch yourself. I may allow you to question me at times, but don't think you can get away with everything. Now, I didn't call you two in to yell at you about your relationship." She looked to the ground in thought. I wondered what - or who - she was thinking about.

She continued. "Dimitri, Rose, we have a problem on our hands. Your relationship is one that will not be permitted. Most will not approve. I, although understanding, cannot sit by and let nothing happen."

"You can't separate us." Dimitri breathed. I hadn't expected something like that from him. It wasn't like him to disobey authority. Something about his tone, although soft, made it known that he wouldn't be away from me.

The queen sighed. "It has come to my attention that I owe Rose."

I gasped. I hadn't expected that. The queen owed me? For what? What had I done? Dimitri looked at me with a questioning look, but looked back at the queen after a moment.

"Adrian has told me of your brave actions during the Strigoi attack. I knew that you had performed in this battle, but didn't know just how well you had done. Rose, we - the Moroi - owe you. You, as well, Dimitri. But I have been unfair to you, Rose, and I want to apologize."

Okay, this was something that I was going to remember for the rest of my life. The queen was apologizing to me. I never thought it would happen. She hated me, after all. Even though I was being cocky on the inside, I was also concerned about where this was going.

As Dimitri and I were on our way back to the school from the cabin one afternoon - the afternoon that we slept together - I had a sudden wave of nausea. I knew what that meant. Anytime I got near a Strigoi I would get nauseous. It turned out that they were planning an attack on the school. Because of my…gift, we were able to warn others before it got too bad. We fought hard, and lost a lot of people, but won in the end.

"Again, I can't sit by and let this happen. Or, at least, I have to pretend that I can't let it happen." She smiled at us. "What I have planned is a…pretend mission."

"Pretend, your majesty?" Dimitri asked.

She gave him a look of pure joy, something I didn't think the queen had in her. "Yes. I will tell everyone that you are doing something very special for me and keep it under wraps. I'm going to tell them that you are taking Lissa and Christian to go college scouting. Everyone knows that Vasalissa wants to go to a human college away from court. They also know that Christian would do anything to be by her side.

"I'm telling everyone that you are going to go with them. We all know that Adrian will be going, too, as he is a part of your…circle, I suppose. There will be no explaining of his joining you because he is free to do what he likes."

"Thank you." I whispered.

"Now, listen. It's important. You will be going to one of my secret houses that I keep. No one knows of it. I want you to hide out there until you have the child. Once you are eighteen, everyone can know about your relationship and although there will be protests, no one will be able to do anything about it."

How did she know that I was pregnant? I decided not to question it and keep listening.

"I'm afraid I haven't come up with an idea for the child's future, but I assure you there will be something. You may not be able to be with the child at first, but you will raise it. I will think of something."

I was afraid. I didn't want to give my child to anyone else. I knew that I hadn't even begun to feel the baby, or even feel like I was pregnant. Hell, I hadn't even had morning sickness yet. But there was some kind of connection there. I knew that I would do whatever it took to both protect and keep my child. By the look in Dimitri's eyes, I could tell he felt the same way.

"Your flight will depart tomorrow afternoon. Speak to no one about this. Not even Lissa, Christian, or Adrian. They will know once I speak to them. I will come to check up on you every few months, but I can't promise much with everything going on. Now, leave. Pack, and get ready." She smiled.

There was no arguing with that. We got up, grabbed each other's hand, and turned to leave. The queen cleared her throat. We both looked at her and knew what she was doing. That was her way of telling us to knock it off until we were alone. We let our hands fall to our sides.

We were about to leave the room when Dimitri turned around.

"Your majesty?" he asked.

"Yes, Guardian Belikov?" The door was now open and the other guards could hear us. He knew this and thought about his next question carefully.

"Will there be any other guardians…attending this trip?" I knew what he meant. Will there be anyone else to guard us while I was in my condition. She nodded and he smiled at her, something I also thought was impossible. Dimitri hardly ever smiled, and I never thought he would smile at the queen herself.

We said nothing more, and as we left the room, I felt a new hope. I packed my bags with a smile, thinking of my future.

**A/N: Review, please! Lemme know what else you want in the story. Any suggestions? Hehe.**

**~Oblivious~**


	3. Chapter 3

It turns out that we were leaving until _late _the next day. I hadn't known when we were leaving so I hadn't planned anything. I woke up and took a shower. I didn't need to wash my hair, so it was a short shower. Afterwards, I took my time deciding what outfit I would wear. I usually didn't do stuff like that, and since I had the time, I wanted to. I also wanted to go out with a bang.

I decided I would wear a sundress around. It was weird, for me, but I didn't mind. I picked a white dress that was covered in slashes of colors. A little purple here, a little orange there. It all played out. I added a purple jacket on the top to give it a little "pop". I smiled at myself in the mirror and headed out.

I was making my way to Dimitri's room when I suddenly got a headache. It was so sudden that I had to stop and stay still. Everything was spinning. It wasn't fast spinning, it was more like…_swaying_. I didn't know what brought this on, but it actually kind of scared me. I'd just put my hand to my head when I heard a door in the hallway open.

"Rose?" Christian was standing at an angle. I couldn't answer. "Rose, are you okay?"

"I just…I need…" I couldn't finish. I dropped down on my butt. Hard.

"Stay right here. I'm gonna go get Dimitri." he said, and before I could say anything, he was off.

I could've sworn that I'd only closed my eyes a second, but when they opened, I was in Dimitri's room. I was in the middle of being put down from the feel of things. I saw Dimitri looming over me, and could feel the thick tension in the air. Someone else was here.

I looked to my side and saw Adrian. Why was he here? Dimitri hated him.

"Rose?"

I looked back up at that beautiful, wonderful man that I loved. I was surprised that I could speak. "Yes?" His eyes widened and I noticed that he wasn't looking at me when he'd spoken my name. He bent down at the sound of my voice and held my hand. "You weren't talking to me?"

"I was actually asking Adrian here a question. But I'm so happy to hear your voice. You scared me. What happened?" I knew he was upset, but his eyes couldn't meet mine. He kept looking over to the side, like he expected Adrian to do something.

It took a minute for me to think about what he'd asked me; I was too interested in the two of them working together. I finally focused and said, "I was coming to see you. My head started hurting. Everything started to…move, and then I was here. Oh, and Christian was there, too. What happened?"

The two of them exchanged a glance and then Dimitri told me. "Christian was coming to find me when he ran into…Ivashkov." His eyes narrowed just the slightest bit. "He came to you and brought you to my room, which was the closest room around. I'm sure he would've taken you to his room, were he given the opportunity."

"I thought you said that he brought me to your room. Why wasn't that an opportunity?"

"Because I ran into the two of you." he replied.

Adrian took this moment to get a word in. "And he might have killed me if you weren't in my arms, little Dhampir."

I wasn't as shocked at this as I should've been. I mean, I knew that I should have been upset that Dimitri might have hurt Adrian, but I also knew that that would be his natural reaction if he found me unconscious in Adrian's arms. If it were the other way around, I would've kicked Adrian's ass. Not that Adrian would ever help Dimitri if he were in my situation.

"Okay, well, I think I'm better now." I replied. I got up. Yes, I was fine. I didn't have a headache or anything. Dimitri laid his hands on my shoulders, wanting me to lay back down. "I'm fine. I don't feel bad at all." I smiled at him to let him know I was telling the truth.

He smiled back and instead of pushing me on the bed, he pulled me into his arms. I heard his sigh and felt his muscles relax at the same time. "I didn't know if I should bring you to the infirmary. I didn't because I knew you wouldn't want to be there. I don't know what happened and how it got fixed, but I am so thankful."

Adrian cleared his throat and we both turned to look at him. We didn't split apart, although I wanted to. I hated flaunting the fact that Dimitri and I were together in front of Adrian. I knew how much it pained him. And although I knew it hurt him, it didn't effect me in the slightest. I wouldn't move away from Dimitri. I _couldn't_.

When no one said anything for a minute Dimitri said, "What do you want, Ivashkov?"

Adrian raised an eyebrow and said, "You can thank me now, if you want. Or you can save it for later when we're in front of everyone. Then everyone will know that I can save your…girlfriend when you can't."

"Excuse me?" Dimitri let go of me. I knew that wasn't a good sign, so I pulled him back to me. He looked down at me and smiled. He pushed back some of my hair in a sign of understanding. He took a deep breath and breathed, "Thank you."

Adrian was obviously shocked. He'd wanted a fight, I realized. He loved when he could get a reaction out of Dimitri. I didn't like it when either of them attacked the other, but it was something I would have to deal with, at least for a little while. It kind of upset me that Adrian was willing to go so far to hurt Dimitri, but I pushed that aside.

"How exactly did you save me, Adrian?" I asked. It took a moment to stop glaring at Dimitri and look at me. There was a sweetness in his eyes that I wished I could return.

"Little Dhampir, I used spirit." he answered.

I gasped. "I… I didn't… I mean, you didn't bring me back from-"

I was cut off. "No way! You didn't die, Rose. You were exhausted. Who knew that spirit could help with something like that. I guess all the stress has been getting to you. I wonder how you would be if I didn't talk to Aunt Tatiana."

I'd forgotten all about the fact that Adrian had helped me out with my situation. I knew I had to thank him, but I really didn't want to do it in front of Dimitri. I was surprised to find that Dimitri had tensed in my arms, and shrugged out of them. He made his way over to Adrian.

"I really don't appreciate you telling the queen that Rose is pregnant." Dimitri said.

Suddenly, the look on Adrian's face wasn't smug. It was the total opposite. His face was the mask of pain, and I knew it was because Adrian hadn't known that I was pregnant.

"You mean, you and her are going to have a child?" Adrian asked. Dimitri smiled and wrapped an arm around me. "How? You know what, never mind. Goodbye, Rose. You have a nice trip." He slipped out of the door.

"Adrian!" I yelled, but he was gone. I turned to face Dimitri.

He smiled and went to grab my hands. I slapped his hands away. He frowned and said, "What's the matter, sweet?"

He almost got me with the use of that nickname. He almost never called me that, and when he did my heart did somersaults. I remembered what I was going to say at the last second and kept my poker face on.

"Why did you tell him that?" I shrieked.

"I thought he knew." He shrugged. This wasn't like my Dimitri.

"You should've known that I hadn't told him." I looked to the ground. I hadn't seen this side of Dimitri before. Of course, I knew that every man could get jealous, but Dimitri had never been like that before, and I…well, in my mind he was superman.

Dimitri didn't say anything for a long time. I closed my eyes, wondering what he was thinking. I was upset about what happened, but not so upset that I wasn't scared he would leave me. My heart started racing at the thought. I was about to speak up when there was a knock at the door.

Dimitri answered it. His room was dark because only one of the lights worked, but the hallway illuminated his face. I saw that he had his old mask on from when he'd mentored me. That couldn't be good. I didn't look to see who it was. He was deep in a conversation with them, and I found myself sitting on his bed.

This was the second time I'd been in his room. I didn't come here often, for reasons I didn't know. He'd only been to my room once or twice, and I knew why that was. My room was in one of the front hallways. Someone seeing him going in my room would raise suspicious. Maybe that's why he hadn't wanted me in his room.

I looked around at everything. There wasn't much to it, just looking at it once. But when you looked closer, there was warmth to it. He had two bookshelves. One was full of the normal western books he would always read, and the other was full of CD's. I walked over and pulled one out.

It was Apocalyptica, a band that consisted of classical mixed with rock music. It was something I expected him to listen to. I didn't spend any more time on the bookshelves and looked at his cabinets. There were little artworks from his sisters, signed, "To Dimka." They were cute little things made of clay. At that moment, I kind of wished I'd had siblings.

I finished looking at everything and went back to the bed. It was messy, but looked more comfortable than any other bed I'd ever seen. This was probably because I knew Dimitri slept there. He had dreams there. He relaxed there. I wasn't paying attention to the door anymore. I was lost in thought.

"You look peaceful." Dimitri said, scaring me. I jumped and noticed that I'd lowered myself to lay on the bed. I wanted to sleep in this bed so badly.

I sighed. I knew what I had to do. I looked at Dimitri and his face fell a little. "Dimitri-"

"I'm so sorry, Roza. I didn't know that it would hurt you like this. I…I honestly don't get why you're so upset." He smiled a little, and sat beside me.

I smiled back at him, knowing that our little argument was over. "I really don't know what it is, but I feel like I can't do that to Adrian. I don't want to hurt him…not on purpose." I explained.

"Oh." he breathed. He let out a small laugh. "I thought you felt something for him. I didn't know what to say when you got defensive about this. Roza, if you don't want me to mess with Adrian like that anymore, then I won't. It will take a lot of the fun out of things, but I won't."

"Thank you." I winked at him. He took my hand and helped me off the bed. "Let's go get something to eat. I'm starving."

For breakfast, we had pancakes. It was something that I didn't enjoy often because of the syrup. It was too sticky and sweet. I did like it on my pancakes, but couldn't stand it on anything else.

Dimitri would sneak kisses when no one was looking. It was like a little game we were playing throughout breakfast. It was fun knowing that if we got caught we might be in trouble. I didn't mind that Dimitri's lips tasted like syrup, and actually decided that I liked syrup…when it was on his lips.

Lissa and Christian joined us for breakfast. Christian let Lissa know about my incident this morning and she'd been searching for me. She pulled me into a hug and asked me if I was okay when she saw me.

"Yeah, I'm good. I still don't really know what happened, but I feel fine now." I gave her a giant smile to show how good I was.

She laughed. "Rose, you are crazy! You always think you're fine. Now, you know that you…should always…go get checked…out… Are these blueberry?" she asked, losing interest in me and finding the pancakes. I left her to her blueberries and went to Dimitri.

"I'm done eating and I'm gonna go pack a little more. I'll see you in a little bit. Just come by my room if you want to talk." I said to Dimitri. I looked around and gave him one more peck on the cheek, giggling because we weren't caught.

I was whistling as I made my way down the hallway. I would've sung, being as happy as I was, but I knew that all it would do was make dogs howl. No, singing was not one of my talents, but I sure could whistle.

I was using my hands and feet to make beats behind my whistling when something had me up against a wall.

"Rosemarie Hathaway!"

Oh, God, no! Please, no, no, no!

"Hello, mother." I replied.

"What are you thinking? Are you crazy?" she yelled.

I was so confused. I hadn't told her a thing, and I didn't think anyone else had. "What are you talking about, mom?"

"What am I talking about?" This was typical behavior for my mom. She always over dramatized things. "I am talking about forgetting about graduation to do a job for the queen! I know you'll make a lot of money, but what about afterwards?"

Oh, so the queen had told my mom I was doing a job for her for the extra pay? I could handle that. I suddenly wondered if the queen had told my mom where I was going. I hoped she wouldn't decide to check in on me. It would just be great for her to burst in the door seeing me sitting on a couch, my stomach the size of a watermelon.

"Mom, I know what I'm doing. Alberta has already told me I will be done with the job and back in time to graduate. Everything is planned out." I told her. Alberta was the head guardian at St. Vladimir's. She had become one of my closest friends here, even though she was a teacher. I hadn't actually talked to her yet, but I knew she would let me graduate. Especially if the queen told her to.

Then again, who knew if I would even have had the baby by the time we're supposed to graduate. Ugh…

"Rose, I… Never mind. We'll continue this discussion later. I have to go for now." she said, and turned without another word.

I shook her off and started towards my room again. The hallways in St. Vlad's were all the same. Every carpet was a dark red, almost the color of blood. It had a bit of a pink tint to it. The walls were tan and red, with a white stripe going down the wall every few feet. They lined the walls with paintings of flowers, nature, and calming scenes.

There were other hallways that had other paintings. It really depended on who was housed there. I noticed something a few weeks ago that wasn't noticeable unless you paid close attention: they housed the students according to Moroi or Dhampir, girl or boy, and element. That's why in some of the hallways there were pictures of volcanoes, where there are paintings of trees in others.

My hallway was decorated with pictures of…well, shiny things. Jewelry, cars, etc. I guess they didn't know what symbolized as Dhampir. I shrugged to myself and opened my door. I packed the last of my things while listening to my stereo. A couple of times someone next door would bang on the wall, but I ignored them.

My neighbors were pricks. I know that sounds horrible, but they are. Only thirty percent of the guardian population were girls, and the ones that lived near me were only here because their parents made them come. I was here because I wanted to be. Well, that, and I didn't have anywhere else to go.

My mom took guarding seriously, as you could see earlier. When she had me, she dumped me on the school and didn't look back. I had no respect for her, until recently. She came back and helped with the Strigoi battle. It still didn't make up for what she did to me, but it helped me see what she left me for.

My dad was non-existent. I heard her speak of him a few times, but had never met him. Ever. So, in my opinion, I had no dad.

So, when everyone else would go home for the summer, or go on vacations with their family, I was stuck here by myself. The only time I got to do anything was when I got to stay with Lissa's family. My first years at St. Vlad's, I'd only known that there was St. Vlad's. It wasn't until my sixth year, Jr. High for us, that I got to leave. And it was amazing. It was also where I got my idea to take Lissa away.

That was a long story. I took her because I felt she was in danger. That's the short version of the story.

There was a knock at my door, pulling me out of my reminiscence. I answered the door to see a smiling Lissa. She practically pounced on me.

"Uh, hey, Liss. What's up?" I asked, with her arms around my neck.

"Rose, we get to go away! You're going to be okay! And so is Dimitri. I'm so happy! Oh, oh, I'm sorry." She pulled away from me, after seeing that she was turning me purple. I smiled at her to let her know that I was fine. I needed a second to get my voice back.

"Since we're leaving today, maybe you should start packing." I told her.

"Already done!" She leapt onto my bed with the grace of a lion. I had no idea how she, or Dimitri, did that, but it seemed like I was the only one who would never find out the secret.

I tilted my head in confusion. "When did you hear about this, Liss?"

"Just this morning. I went straight back to my room and started packing when I was told. You had no idea how happy I was. And then I told Christian, who already heard. Apparently, the queen was saving me for last. Why didn't you tell me?"

She was speaking so fast that I almost didn't hear the last question. "Lissa, have you had any coffee, or sugar? I think you might be high on something." I laughed. She laughed, too, and relaxed on my bed.

"Rose, we're so close to freedom." She was looking at the ceiling. I could tell how excited she was. She had a smile of contentment on her face. I decided to take this opportunity to scare the crap out of her.

I leaped onto the bed right next to her. What I hadn't expected was her reaction mixed with the motion of the bed when I hopped on it - ungracefully, by the way - to make her fly sideways off the bed.

I burst into uncontrollable laughter. I could hear Lissa saying something, but I was too busy laughing. It was a movie moment. Her reaction was so girly. I kept replaying it in my head and laughing harder each time. I finally sobered and looked at Lissa.

"Not funny."

That made me start laughing again, and she got up and went to the door.

"Aw, Liss…don't….take it so…personally. It was just….so…funny!" I said, between giggles.

"I'm glad you think so. I'm going to leave now." She was embarrassed, I could tell.

I leapt off the bed, almost fell, and got to the door just as she walked out. I opened the door and looked both directions. Once I saw her I ran to her and made her stop. "Lissa, I was just joking. I'm sorry if it upset you. Now, can we go outside and do something fun?" I smiled at her. I was high off the laughter.

She pursed her lips and looked to the ceiling. "Well, I don't know… I was planning on going to our going away party…but…"

"Going away party? What? When?" I was almost bouncing. She laughed at me this time.

"Come on. That's why I came to your room. To tell you about the party. Now, let's go!" She took my hand and we ran off.

People were dodging us and moving out of the way. I hit a couple of people, but just laughed. We started zigzagging through the hallway. It was like we were dancing to no music. I was having so much fun, that we didn't even stop in the cafeteria. We turned the opposite way and slid down one of the tiled foyers.

I laughed and laughed. I finally had to stop because I couldn't breathe from the running and laughing at the same time. Lissa grabbed my hand and made me run to the cafeteria.

We were still laughing when we went through the doors.

My laughter and good mood disappeared instantly. What I saw made my heart drop to the floor. I wouldn't be laughing any time soon.

Standing across the room was my Dimitri - with a woman draped around him.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Okay, this will be the last update for a while. I am currently working on my own novel - which isn't on here because I'm hoping to get it published - and another story for the Blue Bloods series. Check that one out if you like the stories. It's called Come What May. So, enjoy this chapter and I swear I will update as soon as possible. =)**

I stood there for a minute, processing what I was seeing. There was no way this was actually happening.

Dimitri had a woman draped around him. Her arms were around his neck and she looked like she was whispering something sweet to him. That may have just been my anger and jealousy speaking, but it sure as hell looked like that.

I was pissed. How could he be doing this to me? I mean, I was going to have his kid. I wanted to walk over there and punch her in the face. Correction, I wanted to walk over there and punch _him _in the face. Granted, he did look like he was trying to get away from her, but I was too blinded by anger to see that.

I let out a sharp sigh, and Lissa looked directly where I was looking. I thought I heard her whisper an "oh no," but I wasn't sure. Instead of doing the typical Rosemarie Hathaway thing, I turned and stalked away. I met Dimitri's eyes as I was turning and I knew he would come after me. At least I hoped he did.

It was once my back was on them that the heartache kicked in. And it hurt. I loved him so much, and he swore that he loved me, too, but that didn't look like him loving me just then. Who was that girl? Why hadn't anyone mentioned to me that she was visiting?

I hadn't been paying attention, but I now noticed that I heard footsteps getting closer behind me. I picked up the pace a little bit. The footsteps matched mine. I gave up and kicked into high gear. Before I could even get into a good run, arms were wrapped around me.

"Roza," he whispered.

"Don't call me that!" I screamed. I scratched at his arms, trying to get him off me. How dare he come after me after what he'd done! And use that name, too!

He made me turn around, still keeping his hold on me. "Fine then. Rose, listen to me."

I was now going crazy trying to get out of his grasp. It wasn't working at all, and I was going to give up, but I was too heartbroken. I knew that if I stopped the anger, I would resort to sadness, and that was something I didn't want him to see.

He chuckled. "Rose, would you stop flailing around?"

I stopped and pouted up at him. It was sad that he had so much authority over me without even knowing it. No, authority wasn't the word. I wasn't quite sure of the word, but it was powerful.

"Now, listen to me. That woman wasn't trying to seduce me, or even flirt. She was playing around. She's one of my best friends. We always play around like that. She's very excited to meet you. Her name is Lana." I looked at the ground. I felt stupid for making a big deal out of nothing. He raised my chin. "I've told her everything about you. After all, she wanted to know how my life had been, and that's what you are. My life."

Okay, I admit that that was cheesy, but it was the most romantic thing Dimitri had ever said to me. I don't deny that my insides were jelly and I couldn't keep a smile off my face.

"There she is." He smiled at me. He knew how to make me happy, all the time.

"Well, let's go meet your friend." I whispered. I was still ashamed of my scene. I was just lucky that I hadn't given into the sadness and started crying. That would've been horrible.

We started back to the cafeteria. A thought occurred to me out of nowhere. "Why has Lana come to visit now? I mean, we're just leaving in a few hours."

Dimitri didn't answer. He shook his head and pulled me closer to him. Sometimes, I felt my age around him. Yes, he was 24, but it didn't bother me at all. There was something about him… He wasn't 24 when I was around him, and I wasn't 17. We were just Rose and Dimitri. Well, we were Roza and Comrade.

"Dimitri?" I asked, stopping in the middle of the hallway. I think a few people almost ran into us from my abrupt stop.

He turned to face me and frowned. "Yes, Rose?"

"Don't call me that." I smiled.

He laughed. It was a beautiful laugh. Something that made my blood run faster through my veins. How could my body feel hot and cold at the same time? His eyes were filled with that laughter and when he stopped laughing, they were filled with love. And they were sparkly. Yes, I know, I'm weird.

"Of course, Roza."

He took my hand, and then let go of it. I knew it wasn't because he didn't want people to see. It was the queen's orders, and he had to obey them. It didn't phase him, though. He was in the mood for a small get-together.

My side was a party, but, of course, Dimitri kept to the small groups, keeping calm conversations. I loved that we complemented each other so well. I was wild and crazy, and he was calm and collected. It shouldn't work, but it did.

Lissa grabbed me and made me dance with her. The song, "Can't stop, won't stop," by The Maine was on. It was perfect for the two of us. We were having so much fun, that we forgot what time it was. There was cake and ice cream, and they decorated the place in blue and green streamers. There was a clock on the side wall, but it had been covered up.

The side doors to the cafeteria flew open and Alberta came in. She was making a bee-line towards me. This couldn't be good.

"Hathaway, your bags are already in the car. Everything is ready. It's time to go. Be at the front of the school in twenty minutes." With that, she left.

I shrugged to everyone at the party and laughed. They all laughed at that because it was typical Rose behavior. I grabbed a few goody bags and took off the hat I was wearing. It was a yellow one with a monkey on it. He was saying something about a banana, but I wasn't really paying attention to the hat.

I heard a couple of cords from an acoustic guitar blare through the speakers and realized that a slow song was coming on. Lissa was behind the DJ desk, with an ipod in her hand. I knew what she'd done. She turned on a song for Dimitri and I.

I wasn't going to give her what she wanted. We couldn't flaunt that we were together. I gave her a look that said, "maybe some other time." She sent her message back through the bond. _Please, Rose. You may not get this opportunity again. Let everyone know._

Lissa had been around me too much lately. I was rubbing off on her. Normally, she wouldn't be wanting me to do something against the rules. I sighed. If it was coming from Lissa I couldn't say no. She was my best friend, and someone I owed my life.

I looked toward Dimitri, who gave me a definite shake of the head, even if it was barely noticeable. I shook my head to Lissa, and this time she shrugged. I helped clean up a little bit, but people kept telling me not to. A new song came on. It was another by The Maine, but I couldn't remember the name. It was about love, but it wasn't sappy and slow. It had a really good beat and was beautiful at the same time. I believed it was called "Kiss and Tell".

Out of nowhere, someone pulled me back from the door. I knew it was him by the touch. He pulled me to the dance floor before I knew what was going on. We went around in a circle before falling into perfect step together.

"They did well." he said.

"Yes, they did. Where is Lana?" I asked. I hadn't seen her since we got back, and it just occurred to me that I hadn't met her.

"She's already in the car."

What? She was going with us? "Why?"

"Because we need more guards. You won't be able to guard, and Lissa and Christian need someone protecting them." he said.

"And Adrian." I added.

He looked in my eyes and nodded. "Yes, him, too."

I thought about that for a minute. "They need one more other than you."

He laughed. "Roza, I don't know how things get past you so easily, when you are so clever. I won't be guarding them. My loyalty has fallen to someone else. Well, two other people, if you think about it."

I actually did have to think about that, and when I didn't answer right away, Dimitri let go of my hands and laughed. I was getting used to his laughter. Either Dimka was losing it, or he was getting used to being himself around me. I was so used to him being serious that when he laughed or smiled around me I felt like I was being rewarded.

I finally got it, and I blushed. The baby and I. How could I not get that? Dimitri had started to walk off with a smile on his face, and I ran over to him.

"Comrade!" I screamed.

He turned just in time to catch me. I crushed my lips to his. I didn't know why I was doing that, I just was. It was an automatic reaction to something so sweet. We kissed and kissed and kissed. My body was tense and relaxed. I felt his fingers in my hair. His breath was so sweet, and his tongue gently brushed my bottom lip when we finally broke apart.

It wasn't until then that I realized we were in front of everyone. Uh oh.

"Everyone, if you will come this way, I'll give you some parting gifts." Lissa said.

_By that, I mean I'm going to compel them. _She winked at me.

We took that opportunity to escape the room.

As Alberta said, there was a car waiting out in the front. Since our driver didn't know that Dimitri and I were together, Dimitri sat in the front and I sat behind him. It wasn't fair. I couldn't even see his face from where I was.

Lissa joined us twenty minutes later. She didn't look good at all. She was sweating, which wasn't a good sign. Her face was paler than usual, which was hard to imagine because of her normally pale skin. She glanced at me and shook her head.

_Give me a little bit, okay?_

I shrugged and looked out the window as we took off. I was always interested in the things out the window when we left the school. I didn't get to spend a lot of time in nature, because of stupid Strigoi, and I took every chance I could to embrace it. Luckily for me, there were a lot of woods around the school. Not only were there woods, but there were _green _covered woods.

There was moss on everything. If it wasn't covered in moss, it was covered in thick, emerald leaves. Life was thriving everywhere. It was as if hope existed everywhere but in the school itself. I couldn't help feeling a little anxious at my realization.

I figured we were going to the airport. In order to get there, we had to follow the long and winding street that went up the mountains to the school. Once at the bottom, we would take a right - a sharp one, at that - and keep going for twenty miles or so. There was a small airport right there that took care of all the vampires' needs.

We left in the early morning - human time - so that we could escape the Strigoi. If a Strigoi was place in direct sunlight, they would burn into nothing but ash. No, not even that. They would burn into nothing. They would _be _nothing. Who am I kidding, they were nothing to begin with. Whoa, that was weird. I could feel the venom that was darkness creeping into me from Lissa.

I opened the bond. I was surprised to see how much darkness she held; so much she kept hidden from me. She didn't want me taking any. I was curious, and decided to take just a small peak into her head to see why she didn't want me to take the darkness.

_I can't take this anymore. I don't want to be controlled. I don't want my every step watched. I want to be a human, as sad as that is. Oh, Rose, bless you for getting me out of this hell hole. Please, oh please, let me hold onto this darkness. I don't want the baby getting it._

I gasped out loud without realizing it. Everyone gave me a quick glance. I shook my head and they looked away. So, she didn't want me taking any darkness because of the baby. Well, I wasn't so sure it would effect the baby. I'd been taking darkness from Lissa when I didn't know about the baby, right? So, it couldn't be hurting it. Could it? Suddenly, I was very afraid.

I noticed that instead of taking the sharp right at the end of the road, we took a left toward the highway.

"Where are we going? We aren't flying there?" I asked.

"No, the queen says she wants you to drive there." the driver replied.

We all processed this, but no one said anything. I kept looking out the window. I hadn't gone this way but only once before and didn't want to miss anything. I loved exploring. I guess it was part of being a guardian. We were always on the move.

But, too soon, we were in an area of nothingness. I sighed and closed my eyes. I was tired. It was night time for us, and I think we all wanted to take a nap. I looked into the side-mirror. I could see Dimitri in it. He had his nose stuck in a western novel again. No surprise there.

Me cell phone beeped. I took it out of my pocket and looked at it.

_Message from Comrade._

Hmm, maybe he wasn't reading after all. The message said that I should try and find something to preoccupy myself. He was told that it was going to be a long trip. He didn't know where it was, but he knew it was a while away.

I guessed I would take a nap, and when we stopped somewhere I would grab a book or something. Normally when I'm bored, I practice guardian moves, but it wouldn't work in the car.

Lissa was giving off a vibe so strong it hit me hard enough to make me see stars. I was still debating in my mind on taking some of that darkness. It couldn't be good for her. On the other hand, what if the little one inside me were to be taking the darkness, too? What would it do to him/her?

I told myself that I would give it a little more time, and then decide. My eyes started getting heavy. I didn't want to be the first to fall asleep, but it was inevitable. All the different moods I'd had throughout the day had exhausted me. I let my eyes close and I drifted into a peaceful sleep. Until Adrian appeared.

"Little Dhampir." he said. His brown eyes were shining. I knew that his mood lit up when he saw me, and it worried me frequently.

"Adrian, why don't you let me get some rest?" I replied.

He looked at the ground. He looked like a schoolboy getting chastised. "You mean, for the baby?"

I'd forgotten about how he found out. It was my turn to look at the ground. I really didn't want to hurt Adrian. He was too sweet to hurt. Yes, he could be a pig, but a part of me did love him…in a way. I think.

"No, actually. I'm exhausted. Are you coming with us?" I asked. I didn't know if he'd changed his mind or if he was taking another vehicle.

"Already on my way. I'll be there a little faster than you. I'm taking a flight." he answered.

What? He got a flight and we had to drive. Bullshit. "Why do you get to fly and we don't?"

"Aunt Tatiana thinks it would be easier if people couldn't detect your tickets and passports and stuff. I don't know. I think she's going a little overboard, but whatever. I'm perfectly fine. They don't know that I'm going where you guys are." He shrugged and smiled at me.

"Hmm. Well…" Suddenly, I was seeing Adrian, but I was also seeing Lissa. I could slip into her mind while I was sleeping? That was a first. She was bouncing up and down. She had to use the bathroom, I realized.

"Hold on, Princess. We're going to find some place for you." the driver said.

Lissa was becoming impatient.

"Rose?" Adrian said from far away.

The darkness was too much. I knew I should've taken some from her. I didn't know it was this bad. Anything could set her off, and I realized that now. She was going to explode.

"Adrian, you have to let me out of the dream!" I shrieked.

"Why? What's going on?"

"Just do-" I was pulled out of the dream and into the car just before it flipped.

There was loud noise all around me. I was aware that we were moving, I just couldn't tell which direction. Or were we even moving a direction? I felt us slowing down. The pain settled in as we slowed, and I was afraid. For once in my life I was worried about myself instead of other people. The pain was too much. I'd never been in this kind of pain.

We stopped and I realized I'd been holding my breath. No, scratch that. My breathing was hitched. I _couldn't _breathe. I struggled to take a breath. Once, twice, three times. There was a delay before the fourth, and I could smell smoke as I finally inhaled.

I was on my side. There was hot pavement on my face. I was shaking, and that beautiful moss that covered the woods was right next to me. I could smell blood. I took in two deep breaths before I tried to undo my seatbelt. It wouldn't come at first, and then I remembered my stake in my pocket. I took it out and slashed at the belt. It came undone in just two swipes.

My face was already on the pavement, but when the seatbelt let go, my body joined it. Pain seized me and I let out a shriek. This brought the sound of movement in the front.

Dimitri.

I forgot my pain and slowly got up. There was glass in two of my fingers. I tried to get one of the shards out and it got stuck in yet another one of my fingers. I winced and pulled both the shards out.

"R-rose." His voice was hoarse. The tears finally slipped out at the sound of his voice. The adrenaline kicked in.

"Dimitri? Are you okay?" I got up and maneuvered myself to the front, where he was. I took his face in my hands. He nodded, telling me that he was okay. I didn't take his word for it. I searched his body for glass or any other objects that could lodge into his skin. I couldn't tell if he had internal bleeding, but other than that he was okay.

"Lissa," I whispered to myself and looked back. Looking at that moment now, I see that I could've easily reached through the bond and know that she was okay. Hell, I wouldn't have even needed to reach through the bond. If Lissa were to have died, I would've known instantly. Shadow-kissed, remember?

She looked fine, except for the fact that she was unconscious. I was about to go back to her when Dimitri grabbed my hand.

"Rose, look." he said. He pointed down to my leg. I hadn't felt it, but something had cut into my calf. Deep into my calf. There was blood gushing everywhere. I didn't know how I missed that.

"It's nothing." I lied.

"No, Roza, that's not nothing." He cut his seatbelt with his stake like I had. His window hadn't broken; it had only cracked. He kicked the window and it gave, sending shards flying outside. He crawled out with that grace I could never perform and gave his hand to me.

"I can't." I shook my head. "Lissa needs me."

"The Princess will be fine for a few more moments, Rose. Just come out here so I can get some help." he pleaded.

"No. You don't understand. I can't leave her." I said. The bond was something that made me love Lissa in a way Dimitri could never understand. She was my sister. She brought me back from the dead. I needed her, just like I needed caffeine in the morning. Just like I needed blood to live.

He sighed and looked at the ground. "Rose," he whispered. He looked at me then, and there were tears in his eyes. That was something I had never seen before. Dimitri was in…tears. No. He didn't cry. He…no.

"Don't do that. You know I can't leave her. I'm sorry." I let him know with my eyes that I loved him, but this was something I had to do.

His face became hard. He locked his jaw. "Rose, you aren't the only one I'm thinking about."

Oh, God. The baby. _The baby! _I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of my baby. My sharp intake of breath let know Dimitri know that I'd understood. Oh, God, please let it be okay!

I started shaking violently. I couldn't stop. Water lined my eyes and then spilled over. I grabbed Dimitri's hand and he helped me out of the car. I couldn't stand by myself, at least not all the way, and he held me close to him. I snuggled into his chest.

"Roza." He didn't have to say anything else. I knew exactly what he was thinking. Exactly what he was feeling. I couldn't stop shaking. I hated myself for the damn shaking.

"Yes, there's been an accident." That was Dimitri on his cell phone. I didn't listen to the rest. I was too busy thinking that I'd almost lost my entire life in mere minutes.

**A/N: Ooooh, what will happen? Keep reading when I update again. It will be sometime later in the week, or early next week. Keep on sending me those AWESOME reviews I love so much, guys!**

**~Oblivious~**


	5. Chapter 5

**I am soooo sorry about this =/**

**I can't update the story - any of my stories, actually - for a while. =(**

**I'm working on my novel and I have a job, plus school is going to be starting soon.**

**Again, I am so so so so so sorry.**

**Send me a message if you would like to take over the story. I'll be happy to hand it over. I know that a lot of people like to read the stories and stopping them now seems a waste.**

**Thank you for reading them! It means a lot to me.**

**And make sure to look out and see if I get published!**

**If I do, I will write my real name on here so you can look =)**

**~Oblivious~**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello, everyone! As you all know, this story has been discontinued. However, I have received a lot of messages and reviews asking to take over the story. I gave one reader permission to take it over. That was months ago, and I had assumed they had already done it but never checked up on it. They haven't. So, I will be continuing the story because so many people like it. But be warned that it may take me a while to put up new chapters. I am just now getting ready to go to college, getting my first apartment, and trying to find another job.**

**So sorry for the wait. I will try to put up a new chapter sometime this week =]**

**Thank you all so much for reading and waiting!**

**~Oblivious**


	7. Chapter 7

**Okay, it has definitely been a while since the last update to this story… I don't even remember what I was going to write next. But when I re-read the story I think I figured out why you guys like it so much. In fact, I am seriously waaay excited to write more! I was so excited that I got done with the next chapter right away! Lol. So, without further ado, here is chapter 5 of A Turn of Events:**

I wanted to cry. I had to keep myself together for everyone else's sake. I was being lifted onto a gurney. The pain in my leg had kicked in and I yelped in pain. I saw the jerk that went through Dimitri and told myself that I had to fight through the pain for his sake. I didn't want him worrying about me…or the baby.

As they put me in the ambulance, I saw Lissa being pulled from the car by another paramedic. Dimitri wouldn't let me pull her out earlier. Although I didn't want to wait for the ambulance to get there to pull her out, I knew that he was right. There could've been a number of things that were wrong with Lissa, and pulling her out could've killed her. I knew that Dimitri cared about her, too, but in the back of my mind I couldn't help thinking that he was thinking about what would happen to me if something were to happen to her. If I had pulled her out of that car and accidently killed her, I wouldn't know what to do with myself, let alone Dimitri or the baby.

Lissa's limp body looked perfect as they pulled her out of the car. At that moment, I saw why people thought she looked like a Goddess. She was one of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen – and not in a lesbian way. I couldn't see if she was breathing from where I was, but I reached out through the bond and knew she was alright.

I closed my eyes and thought of the irony of it all. We were supposed to be going away to protect Dimitri, the baby, and I. Instead, we get into a car wreck and were put in more danger than we were in the first place. A different kind of danger, yes, but danger nonetheless. I kept wishing over and over that everyone would be okay. Especially my baby. My poor, innocent, little baby who could do nothing to protect itself. How could I be a good mother if I couldn't even protect my child when it was in the womb?

Pain brought me out of my thoughts. I looked down to see a needle in my leg.

"Don't worry, it's just something for the pain. You've been cut pretty badly and we want to give the medication to you now so that it'll kick in before we get to the hospital. You'll have to get stitches, but you'll be alright." a young paramedic told me. He had dark brown hair and a nice smile.

"Thanks. Is everyone else okay?" I asked. Dimitri had gone around to the front of the ambulance where the police were. He had to tell them what had happened. I still didn't know.

The paramedic took the syringe he had and put a cap over the needle. "I'm…not sure."

"What is it? You know something; I can tell." I narrowed my eyes at him when he looked at me again. He looked away from me and put the syringe down for a moment.

"There were only four of you in the car, right?" he asked.

I thought about that for a minute. The crash had made me forget about a lot of things temporarily. "Yes." There was our driver, a guardian whom I had never met before, Lissa, Dimitri, and me.

The young paramedic sighed. "I'm afraid that the driver is in critical condition. We…well, we don't know for sure, but we don't think he's going to make it. He's on his way to the hospital as we speak in another ambulance."

I looked up at the roof and let out a breath. I didn't even know his name… He died around people who didn't even know him. Then again, that's usually how it goes with guardians. It didn't make me feel any better, though.

"Rose?" Dimitri appeared in the doorway. When he saw me he took a deep breath. "Lissa is alright. They said they won't know the extent of her damage until they get her to the hospital, but she should be fine."

I thought I would cry when I heard that, but I managed to hold it together. I put my left hand out to the side. "Come sit with me?"

He sat down and stroked my fingers. He leaned in and whispered in my ear, "Did you tell them about the baby yet?"

Damn it all to hell! Why couldn't I remember important things like this? I shook my head and looked over to the paramedic on the other side of me. "Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm pregnant…"

The young man looked up sharply at me. "Why didn't you say anything sooner?" He jumped up and ran out the door. The jolt from the door hurt my leg. I thought pain medication from the hospital was supposed to kick in fast!

"Are you okay? How bad is the pain?" Dimitri asked.

I gave him a small smile. "It's not the worst feeling in the world, but it isn't the best, either. I can deal with it." He kissed me, but the engine started and the ambulance began to move so he had to stop. "That was fast. I guess when you have an injured pregnant woman you get special treatment."

Dimitri gave me a serious look. "Rose, this isn't something to be joking about."

I looked away. That stung. I knew he was right, but the way he said it made me feel so…bad. "Maybe Tatiana was right." I said. "Maybe…we should give the baby up."

Dimitri's hand tightened on mine. "No." I looked over at him. "Roza, I would never give our child up for anything. Do you hear me? _Anything_." I could feel my lower lip tremble. "Why would you say something like that?"

I took a deep breath before I said anything because I knew that if I didn't I would start crying. "I'm so bad at this. I…I forgot to tell the paramedic about the baby! How can I be a mom when I don't put my child first?"

Dimitri sighed and dropped my hand. I didn't expect that reaction. "Rose, I think it's normal for someone in your situation to forget about something like this. You're…having a baby under different circumstances than anyone else in the entire world!"

I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say. It was completely silent except for the clinking of instruments for a moment. "I know. I don't know what I'm saying. I guess-"

I was interrupted by a shocking feeling. I immediately jumped into Lissa's head. She was being held down by the paramedics. At first, I started to freak out inside because I thought they were trying to hurt her, but then I realized that Lissa didn't know what was going on so she was freaking out and the paramedics were just trying to get her to calm down.

"What happened?" she asked. "Where is Rose? Dimitri?" I tried so hard to send her a feeling through the bond, but it didn't happen. Sometimes the bond being a one-way thing sucked.

"You're friends are okay. We will see them when we get to the hospital. You were in a car accident. We're just taking you to the hospital to make sure that everything is alright." one of the paramedics – an man who looked about middle-age, with light hair and green eyes – told her.

Lissa looked around and realized she was in an ambulance. She calmed down and asked how much longer it would take to get to the hospital.

"Rose!" Dimitri yelled. I jumped out of Lissa's head and looked at him. "Is Lissa okay? What happened?"

Dimitri knew me so well now that he didn't even have to ask what was going on with me. Instead, he already knew that I was in Lissa's head. I really hadn't paid much attention to that fact before. "She's fine. She flipped a little when she woke up because she didn't know where she was, but she's alright now."

Dimitri relaxed a little. "Good." My heart sank a little. I had wanted him to comfort me before when I said something about giving the baby up. I knew that he had said comforting words, but his actions – dropping my hand and sighing – said something else.

The ambulance stopped and the doors came open a minute later. The next few minutes went by in a flash. One second I was in the ambulance, the next I was on another gurney and being rolled into the ER. The next minutes went in a blur as they checked out my stomach. They rolled me to a closed room with a lot of machines in it and left. A nurse came in and checked my blood pressure and temperature. She then told me that the doctor would be back in a moment.

As I waited, I thought about how weird this all was. I couldn't believe that I was one of those girls who got pregnant in her teens. Sure, you hear about that happening a lot, but not in my world. I was scared. Was I supposed to go to a special doctor for this? Would a regular doctor be able to tell that my baby wasn't exactly human?

My thoughts were interrupted by the door opening. "Rose, is everything alright?" Dimitri asked as he closed the door behind him. He rushed over to my side and took my hand. I was happy that he was by my side, but at the same time I was still stung by his reaction earlier.

"I'm not sure yet. They said the doctor would be back in a minute. I'm kind of scared…" I said. It was weird. I, Rosemarie Hathaway, had been through fights with badass killing-machine vampires, and I was scared of being in the hospital.

Dimitri kissed my forehead. "Don't be, Roza. Everything is going to be fine. I am right here beside you."

I took a deep breath and nodded. The door opened then.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Stephens. We're going to be doing an ultrasound to make sure that the baby is alright and that the placenta is intact." It was a girl doctor, thank God for that.

She came over to the side and put some gel on a weird looking device that kind of looked like a microphone. "How far along are you?"

"I don't know." I told her.

She gave me a funny look. "Have you been to the doctor since you found out you were pregnant?"

"Uh, no. Was I supposed to?"

She sighed and shook her head. She had long, dark blonde hair and brown eyes. She was pretty tall for a human woman, about 5'10". "Well, then. We're going to have to do a few tests, okay?" I nodded. "Is this the father?"

Dimitri stepped forward and extended his hand. "Yes. I'm Dimitri."

"Dimitri. What a lovely name." she said as she shook his hand. Jealousy flared up in me. "Will you be staying in here while she has the tests done?"

"Yes." he replied. I wanted to say no because I didn't want him there while I was getting checked out. I may not have known a lot about pregnancy, but I did know a few things and I didn't want him there while I was getting my…uh, lady parts examined. I decided against it because, after all, he was the father.

You don't even want to know what happened after that. After everything was checked out the doctor told me that the baby was fine. "I want you to take it easy for a while, okay? I don't want to scare you, but too much stress can be harmful to the baby. So, relax and rest for a while. I am going to give you a prescription for the pain in your leg that won't harm the baby. They are going to wheel you out to get it stitched up. They should've done that a long time ago. Tell me, can you feel this?" she asked as she poked my leg right next to the cut.

"No, actually." I replied. I had expected it to hurt, but I guess the medicine was still working.

Dr. Stephens smiled as she said, "They will give you my number at the office and I want you to give it to the doctor that you will go to throughout your pregnancy so I can tell him about your results. _Find a doctor when you get home_! They will tell you when you need to go back for another appointment to make sure the baby is doing well." She went to leave, but stopped and said, "Oh, and congratulations."

[BREAK]

Lissa turned out to be fine. She would have a couple of cuts and bruises but she would be alright. It was the same with Dimitri. They gave us all different medications, but I got prescribed prenatal vitamins, too. Our driver didn't make it, just like the paramedic had said. Tatiana arranged for us to be picked up and brought to a private jet.

We had just got on the jet when Lissa got a call. She excused herself and Dimitri and I were left to ourselves.

"I'm so glad the baby is okay." Dimitri said, holding my hands.

I put on the best smile I had in me and replied, "Me, too. I'll have to find a doctor when we get…wherever we're going."

Dimitri paused for a moment to look at me. "Roza, what's wrong?"

I thought about what I would say to him. Should I tell him the truth and face him getting mad at me? Or should I just try to forget about it and say nothing? "I just… Are you mad at me?"

He laughed. "Mad at you? Why would I be mad at you?"

"For what I said earlier, in the ambulance." I looked down at the ground. I couldn't believe myself. I wasn't acting like me at all. Get it together, Rose!

Dimitri grabbed my face and pulled it up to look at him. He kissed my forehead, nose, cheeks, mouth… "I'm not mad at you, Rose. Yes, it was a little…unsettling, what you said, but I'm not mad. Let's just forget it ever happened, okay?"

I nodded and kissed him back, over and over. "I love you so much." I said. He didn't have to say anything back. I knew that he loved me just as much as I loved him. We kissed until I couldn't breathe anymore, and then we leaned back and just sat together in silence. We didn't need words.

At that moment, Lissa ran back to us. I sat up because she looked like something was wrong. Dimitri had had his eyes closed, so as soon as I moved, he moved, too.

"Lissa, what's wrong?" I asked.

She had her cell phone in her hand and she was switching her phone between it and her other hand. "That was the queen."

She didn't say anything else. "And…?" Dimitri commented.

Lissa looked to the ground, the roof, and then finally at us. "Well, I don't think you need to feel bad about the driver dying."

I was shocked when she said that. How could Lissa – someone who loved almost everything and everyone unconditionally – say something like that? It was so unlike her. I loved Lissa like a sister and would do almost anything for her. I realized that maybe it was the darkness doing this to her. I took a peek and saw so much darkness that I was scared for her. If it was doing this to her, it could cause some _really _bad problems later. Dr. Stephens had said that the baby looked fine, and I had taken some of the darkness from her before, so I figure taking a little from her now wouldn't be a problem.

I drew some of the darkness from her. I kept drawing it until I felt it was about even between us. When I tried to stop, I couldn't. I tried harder, but it wouldn't stop coming. That had never happened before. I started to freak out a little bit on the inside. Finally, when the darkness in Lissa was down to a little ball, it stopped coming into me.

My vision went red for a moment and then I saw stars. When they disappeared, I realized that Lissa was looking off.

She sighed, and I thought it was from the darkness being taken from her, but she turned toward us and sighed again. "She said that we didn't crash on accident. Our driver was found behind the kitchen at St. Vladimir's. He was murdered. Someone apparently killed him and pretended they were our driver so that they could crash the car and kill us."

So, some guy had tried to kill the love of my life, my best friend in the world, my unborn child, and myself? On top of it all, I had said something horrible to my…boyfriend/soul mate because I was feeling sorry for myself, and now I had taken all that darkness from Lissa for nothing?

"_What_?" I asked, my teeth ground together. I could barely see Lissa and Dimitri as they turned to look at me.

"Rose?" they both asked together.

Everything was red again. How dare he? _How dare he_? That man tried to kill everyone that I hold dearest to my heart! I was going to get Lissa to bring him back to life just so that I could stake him myself!

"Stop this jet! Get me back there so I can figure out who did this! I am going to _kill them_!" I shouted. I tried to get up, but Dimitri pulled me back down.

"Rose, calm down! The guy is already dead. Let the guardians at the school figure out what's going on. We're okay, that's all that matters." he soothed.

I tried to get up again. "Rose, the baby!" Lissa shouted at me.

I could feel my eyes go wide. The redness faded. I could feel Dimitri's arms around me. I felt so weak. "I…I…" I didn't know what to say. My hands went to my stomach. I looked right at Dimitri. "What is happening to me?"

He pulled me to his chest and shushed me. Lissa stroked my hair back. "Roza, I love you. There is nothing wrong with you. This is stressful, I understand, but you have to try and relax. For our child."

That last sentence got to me. Not, _my child_, or, _your child_, or even, _the baby_… No, he said _our child_. And to me, that meant more than anything in the world.

I looked into his eyes. "You're right. From now on I am going to be the most relaxed person in the world!" I was still a little worked up. I could feel the room spinning. "Our child will be the most important thing to me. Starting now."

Lissa and Dimitri smiled at me.

That was the last thing I saw before I passed out.


	8. Chapter 8

**I am so excited to be writing this story again! For a while there I just wanted to take a break from everything, including writing. I was just super stressed. Now, I am in a place where I am comfortable and ready to start everything up again. I am going to try my hardest to update this story ASAP. Enjoy!**

"Rose, where are you?" Adrian asked. We were in a meadow filled with small trees and flowers. Adrian was wearing some jeans and a tight brown t-shirt with horizontal white stripes on it. It actually looked really good on him.

I looked around. "Uh, I'm not sure. Where are we?"

Adrian took two big steps toward me and looked me over. I noticed that I was wearing the same dress I was wearing in the real world. You could easily see the gash in my leg. "What happened?" he asked as he pulled me into his chest.

"Oh, it's not a big deal. We were…" I stopped because I remembered what Lissa had told us about the driver. "Actually, it kind of is a big deal. Some guy killed our original driver and then posed as him. He drove us for maybe fifteen minutes and then he crashed the car. He died, but the rest of us are okay. I got the worst of it." I gestured toward my leg.

Adrian took a deep breath and let me go. "I'm glad everyone is okay. I'll let you go now."

"Adrian? What's wrong?" I asked. He didn't really sound like he was glad everyone was okay. He sounded sad.

He shook his head and looked at the ground. "It's nothing. Where are you right now? Outside of the dream."

"We're on a jet. I don't know how long it will be until we get there." I shrugged. "But what's really going on with you?"

Adrian grabbed my hand and twirled me around. It hurt my leg a little, but I didn't say anything. "I'll see you soon, little dhampir."

I didn't know how much time had passed since I passed out. I could hear beeping from somewhere before I even woke up all the way. I wanted it to go away. I wanted to sleep more. It felt like I had been asleep for a very long time, but I didn't care. I was comfortable. I felt extremely relaxed.

Unfortunately, my mind decided on its own that it was time to wake up.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked to the right, where the beeping was coming from. There was a machine monitoring my heartbeat. There was another sort of sound coming from it. It sounded like someone beating a drum under water. I assumed it was the baby's heartbeat.

I looked around the rest of the room. I was in a big white bed with a red comforter and pillows. There were two guardians in the room. One was at the door, and the other was at the window. The room was pretty bare. It had white walls and a couple of abstract paintings hung up.

"Excuse me?" I asked…well, pretty much either of the guardians.

"Yes?" the one at the door replied.

I cleared my throat. "Where am I?"

Neither answered, but the one at the door opened it and said, "She's awake."

A doctor rushed into the room. She looked pretty much like Dr. Stephens, except she had brown hair and was a bit shorter. "Hello, Rose. I am Dr. Klaus. I will be taking care of your medical needs throughout your pregnancy. I can't stay long. I have to go back to the hospital. You are fine. The only reason we have you hooked up to these machines is because we wanted to be absolutely sure that you and your baby are okay. Now that you are awake, I know that there was no serious damage done. I will be coming back in two weeks to check up on you. It seems that you have had a pretty unlucky start to your pregnancy.

"I want you to rest as much as you can. It'll not only help you with your stress level, but also your leg. The stitches should dissolve by themselves so you don't need to worry about that. I do have to ask something, though." Dr. Klaus sat down on a stool that she pulled from the side of the bed. "Do your parents know that you are here, and that you are pregnant?"

Well, no. But why would I tell her that? She would just want me to give her my mom's number so that she could call her and tell her what exactly it is that I'm doing here. I knew what she was thinking. She thought that I had run away from home with my baby's daddy and was staying here until I had the baby. "Yes."

Dr. Klaus gave me a look. "And what do they think?"

"Well, I've never known my dad. He left when I was little. My mom isn't happy about it, but she realizes that there really isn't anything we can do about it. I don't believe in abortion, and we're still trying to decide if we want to keep the baby or not. She's actually the one who wanted me to come here. She told everyone I was going to visit my aunt. She's a little ashamed, and I hate that I've put her through this, but, again, there is nothing we can do about it." I explained.

Apparently, I lied really well so she told me when to take what medication, unhooked me from the machines, and left. I seriously needed a shower so I got up to find the bathroom. The living room was right outside the room I was in and it was huge! It seemed like the entire house was decorated in some kind of plain cabin-like feel.

I started walking towards the hallway when something swept me off my feet.

"I thought you were supposed to be resting?" Dimitri said with a giant smile plastered on his face.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and nestled my head into his neck. "I am. But you know me, I never follow the rules." I looked around. "Where is Lissa?"

"She's swimming in the pool right now."

"There's a pool?" I almost leapt out of his arms.

He laughed. "Yes, but I'm afraid I won't let you go to it. You really are supposed to be resting."

"Not fair." I pouted. "I was going to take a shower…"

Dimitri put his lips right up to my ear. "In that case, I'll join you."

[BREAK]

"Okay, this was all good in the beginning, but I'm bored! I want to go into town or something. Pleeeaasseeee?" I begged.

Dimitri practically burned a hole into my forehead with the stare he gave me. "Do we have to go through this every day, Rose? I already told you, we were sent here for a reason: to keep you and I safe. We don't even know what town we're in. We're in the middle of the woods! There could be Moroi and Dhampirs in this town, and they definitely know who we are. Besides, look at you. You know that if we had to hike to town, we would get halfway there before you started complaining about how bad your feet hurt."

I propped my feet up into his lap. It took me a moment because my stomach was so big. We preferred not to know the sex of the baby, but I could feel it move inside me. It also liked to snug it's feet into my ribs, which was not fun. I was due any day now, and Dimitri was probably right. "In that case, would you rub my feet?" I gave him a sweet smile.

"Rosemarie Hathaway, what am I going to do with you?" he joked as he started to rub my right foot.

I moaned before I said, "Love me?"

"Ick. You guys, cool it. At least while I'm in the room." Christian said, with a glass of orange juice in his hand. He had arrived the after us. It was just the five of us: Me, Dimitri, Lissa, Christian, and Adrian. I barely saw Adrian anymore, and when I did he was drunk. We had all been doing pretty much the same thing since we got here. A lot of making out and…other things, watching TV, and doing anything that would preoccupy us. Lissa and Christian left frequently to go look at colleges, but I wasn't allowed to leave.

"If you don't want to see it, then don't look!" I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Oh, believe me, if –" Christian was cut off by loud knocking on the door.

Dimitri picked me up – quickly but carefully – and carried me into our bedroom. "Stay quiet." he whispered. I nodded. He put me down on the bed and walked over to the door. It was cracked so that he could hear what was going on.

It felt like I sat there forever looking for a sign in Dimitri's posture that something was wrong. My heart felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest. My stomach was in knots. I knew I had to calm down for the sake of my baby. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Dimitri finally walked back over to me and picked me up.

"Ouch!" I hissed. I guessed the way he picked me up hadn't suited well with my stomach.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he walked out of the room.

I held my stomach with one hand and wrapped the other around his neck. "Yeah, I'm okay. This huge stomach of mine just doesn't agree with me sometimes."

Dimitri laughed and kissed my forehead as he sat me down on the couch. "I love you."

"I love –" I was cut off by a warm wet feeling. I felt my eyes go wide. My hands automatically went down to my stomach. The wet feeling just kept coming and coming. I had so many thoughts running through my head.

"Roza? Sweet, are you okay?" Dimitri seemed to ask me that a lot since I got pregnant. He kneeled down beside me and put one of his hands on my stomach, the other on my leg.

"Uh, I think you need to go get some towels." I told him.

A small smile formed on his face. "Why is that?"

I took a breath and then said, "Well, I'm pretty sure my water just broke."

The smile dropped instantly. I had expected Dimitri to go right into action. To pick up the phone, call the doctor, get me in the gown my doctor had left for me, get me in bed, and start helping me get ready. I didn't get that. Dimitri stopped breathing and looked everywhere as if he didn't know what to do. It was strange to see him so confused. When going into battle, Dimitri didn't have a single hesitation. When having a baby, he looked like he was going to throw up. It just didn't make any sense.

"Well, go call the doctor!" I urged. I got the response I wanted then. He jumped up and started toward the phone. "Lissa!" She ran into the living room from the hallway. She saw Dimitri running around like a mad man and gave me a confused look. I mouthed, "baby".

"Oh my God!" Lissa ran over to me and grabbed my hand. "Do you want me to help you into your gown? What can I do? Do you need some sort of medication? I can –"

"Liss, calm down! If you'll go get my gown and help me into the bathroom, that would be wonderful. I think Dimitri has everything else taken care of." I told her. She started to go off, but a contraction hit me and I let out a little groan. She put a hand on my shoulder and closed her eyes. I knew what she was trying to do. "Liss, that won't help either of us. Go!"

Eight painful hours later, I was holding my beautiful baby girl named Maya. I had thought that I would want to sleep, or eat after I had her. But all I wanted to do was hold her and love her the rest of the night. She was born with a head full of dark hair, like her father's. Dimitri cried with a smile on his face the first time he held her. She seemed to like being in her daddy's arms.

"She's absolutely beautiful. You did a great job, Roza." Dimitri whispered while holding Maya.

"_We _did a great job." I replied. I moved over a little – it was hard because I couldn't feel my legs from the epidural – so that Dimitri could sit next to me.

"Hey, you two. Look over here." Lissa said as she came in the door. We did, and she snapped a picture of us. "First picture of the family." Lissa had a smile as long as a mile when she looked at us. She went to Dimitri's side to look at Maya. "Wow. She is definitely the product of you two."

Dimitri and I laughed at that. After an hour of spending time with my brand-new daughter, a nurse came in and told me that I needed to get some sleep. Dimitri went with the nurse so he could spend some time with Maya. I fell into the heaviest and happiest sleep I had ever had.

[BREAK]

"Roza!" Dimitri smacked my arm. He had said my name three or four times already and I was trying to ignore him so that he would tend to Maya. It seemed that he would call me Roza instead of Rose when he was half asleep. I knew it was my turn to tend to her, but I was tired. They had given us a new room in the house to stay in because it had another room attached to it. We turned it into a nursery with the supplies the queen had sent. Maya was supposed to be sleeping in her basinet, but apparently she needed something.

"Okay, okay!" I got up and yawned. Maya was only a week old. I hoped and hoped that Maya wasn't hungry. That little girl would latch onto my boob for what seemed like hours. I never thought that I would actually wish to be woken up to change a dirty diaper. But, then again, I never thought I would have a baby at eighteen.

It seemed that babies, although they slept a lot, knew when day was and when night was, so Dimitri and I had to get on a human schedule to match Maya's. She slept more in the night than she did in the day. It was dark when I opened my eyes, but I could still see.

I put on my slippers and got a sip of water before getting up. I shuffled into the nursery. I was still half-asleep, so what I saw confused me. Once I digested what I was seeing, my heart started racing. I thought so many things in one second. I didn't know what to do. Why hadn't I felt any nausea?

_Rosemarie Hathaway! _I thought to myself. _You are a dhampir, and what do dhampirs do? They fight and protect. So, do it! Think!_

"Hey!" I yelled to the strigoi. "Get your gross, undead claws away from my baby!"

It did exactly what I thought it would. It turned its attention toward me instead of Maya. I had to lure it into my bedroom. I couldn't fight it in the nursery; we might accidently run into the basinet and hurt Maya. I also didn't have my stake with me, so it would be difficult to kill it.

I turned and ran into the room. "Dimitri!" I yelled as I ducked. I had a feeling that the strigoi would jump at me from behind, and I was right. It went right over me, but it was quick. It turned back toward me and grabbed my neck. It shoved me up against a wall. My oxygen was automatically cut off.

"We want the baby, and we will have it." it snarled. I wanted to ask it why, but with no oxygen came no words. The strigoi came in closer to my neck. Suddenly, I wished he had broken my neck. Instead, he was going to drain me. I could only hope that I would pass out from the lack of oxygen before he finished.

I closed my eyes and braced myself for the bite. Suddenly, I could breathe and I was falling to the floor. I saw stars for a moment before I saw Dimitri and the strigoi facing each other in fighting stances. I was torn. I wanted to jump in and help Dimitri. Two dhampirs fighting a strigoi had a better chance of taking it down than one. At the same time, I wanted to run into the nursery, grab Maya, and get her out of there.

I was also worried about Lissa. I reached through the bond for just a moment to find that she was with Christian. They were watching a movie in their room. Good. That meant that if a strigoi did find them, sparky could set it on fire.

I looked back and forth between the nursery and Dimitri. I decided Dimitri needed my help more at the moment. I was about to get up to try and get a stake, when movement out of the corner of my eye got my attention. There was another one in my daughter's room!

_Oh, that's it._ I thought.

I got up, ran into the nursery, and punched the strigoi as hard as I could in the face. It shot back about two feet and then recovered. It took a swing at my face, but I moved back just in time. It shot out again and got my ribs. Ouch. I knew I couldn't give in to the pain right then. I launched my entire body forward and hit the strigoi with all my might. It actually fell into the ground. Right then was when I got how a mother could turn into a beast when it came to her children.

The strigoi rolled and wound up on top of me. I grabbed it's waist – leaving my face open for a moment, which isn't a good idea – and threw it to the side. I was on my feet the same time it got to its feet. I was in between Maya and the strigoi. We dodged from side to side. It was trying to get to my baby, and I wasn't going to let it.

"Rose!" Dimitri yelled. I looked over just in time to see him throwing a stake my way. I caught it, and gave a big smile to the strigoi.

It punched me in the ribs again, and that time it really hurt. I almost doubled over and it got behind me. I turned, quick as lightning, and shoved the stake into its back. It yelled in pain. Maya shrieked even louder than she had been the entire time. I grabbed the strigoi by the back of its shirt and pulled it back, my stake going through the back of its ribs and into its dead heart.

I got the stake out just before it dropped. I ran and picked up Maya. I didn't know where Dimitri had gone, so I ran into the room. Tears were streaming down my face. I was mumbling something about never letting Maya go again when I ran into Dimitri. Lissa and Christian were behind him. He had gone to check on them.

"Where's Adrian?" I asked.

"I haven't seen him since…the third." Lissa replied. "Three days before Maya was born."

No one had seen Adrian, but we had all assumed he was in his room. When Maya was about to be born, Christian had run up to his room and knocked on the door. No one answered so he tried to go in. The door was locked. Christian said that he yelled that I was going into labor, but Adrian just yelled at him to go away.

"Dimitri, take Maya. Christian, come with me. If we run into a strigoi, I want you to fry the bastard, got it?" I explained. He nodded. I turned to Dimitri and Lissa. "We'll be right back. If we aren't back within five minutes, come looking for us."

We didn't get three feet when we heard, "Calm down. I'm right here."

I ran into the kitchen – which was about fifteen feet from me – and punched Adrian right in the arm. "Ow! What was that for?" he shrieked.

I punched him with every word, just not as hard as the first time. "You. Had. Me. Worried. To. Death!" I stopped punching him and hugged him. "Where have you been? Adrian, why are you acting like this?"

I pulled back and looked at him. His face went soft. He put one hand on my cheek. "I'm sorry, Rose. I know I haven't been…the best friend I could be lately." He sighed. "Rose, I just…"

"He's upset that you and I had a child together." Dimitri snarled.

"Dimitri! Let him talk." I snapped right back. I looked back at Adrian.

Adrian shook his head and then looked at me. "He's right. I was jealous. I still am. But…I can see how much this is hurting you. I'm sorry, I really am. I just don't know if I can be just your friend, Rose."

"You can! Please. Adrian, you are one of my best friends! I want you in my life." I pleaded.

He didn't say anything for a long moment. He just looked at me. It was as if I could see the battle playing in his head. Should he suck it up and just be my friend so that he can be in my life? Or should he tell me that he didn't want to be friends so he could mend his heart and forget me altogether?

"Okay. Can I see…?"

"Her name is Maya." Lissa interjected with a smile. I gave her a big smile. I looked over at Dimitri, and he didn't look happy at all. Maya had calmed down so I held out my hands to him.

He came to me, but he was reluctant to give me Maya. "Please, comrade." I said with a big smile. It was almost the same thing that happened with Adrian. His eyes went soft, and he handed Maya over with a kiss to my forehead. I walked over to Adrian and gently handed him the baby.

"Oh, wow." he said. "She's so…so…"

"Beautiful?" Lissa said.

"Like her parents?" Christian chimed in.

Adrian shook his head. "She's so…tiny!" We all laughed.

We all wound up sitting in the living room and talking for a little while. Adrian explained to us where he had been going all these months, and how he had made some friends in town. He also told us that the queen had told him that we would be in town for five more weeks before going back to the school.

Eventually, it was dawn, and we all needed to get some sleep. Dimitri and I agreed that we would take turns handling Maya so that we could get back on a vampiric schedule. We all agreed that it would be better if we decided to sleep in one room because of the attack. Lissa and Christian's room was the biggest, it had one extra bed that the queen insisted they have, and it had a couch that could pull out into a bed, so we decided to sleep there.

I went to bed with all my loved ones, and I couldn't have been happier.

Little did I know that things wouldn't be that simple again for a long, long time.


	9. Chapter 9

**I'm working really hard to get the chapters up. I've noticed that it doesn't take me quite as long to finish a chapter now than it did before. It used to take me about 5-6 hours to write a chapter and now it only takes about 2-3. So, you will definitely be seeing a lot more updates. Also, I would love it if you could leave me some reviews. I know that for some of you it's a bit hard because you have stuff you have to do, but the more reviews I get with suggestions the easier it will be for me to think of things to put in the story and the faster a chapter will be put up! Thank you for reading my story! Here we go…**

I woke up just before the sun went down. I closed my eyes and just relaxed…until I realized that I hadn't had to get up once to tend to Maya. I shot up out of bed. No one was there. I got up and ran into the hallway leading to the living room. Apparently, Adrian had been going the opposite direction because we ran right into each other.

"Little dhampir, where's the fire?" He laughed. He was wearing a pair of loose-fitting black pants and a baggy white shirt. He had to have just gotten up. Adrian never went around looking like that. His hair was messy, but it was hard to tell if he had styled it like that or just got out of bed in this light.

I took a deep breath. "I just didn't know where everyone went."

Adrian walked passed me. "You mean, you didn't know where Maya and Dimitri went? They're in the kitchen. Dimitri is making breakfast, Lissa is tending to Maya, and Christian is taking a shower. I'm going to my room to brush my teeth and then I'll be in there."

"Wait. Why did you guys leave me?" I asked.

He turned around to look at me. "We thought you could use the sleep. Dimitri said you got hit pretty hard last night. A couple of times, actually. They're waiting for you." He winked and walked away.

I hadn't paid much attention to how my body was feeling because I was so freaked out. I stopped and moved a bit. I had a tiny headache, but nothing a little aspirin wouldn't take care of. The right side of my ribs hurt like they were bruised, but it wasn't something I couldn't handle.

As I walked into the kitchen, Lissa spotted me and gave me a big smile. "I think she may be hungry. I couldn't find any of the bottles the queen dropped off." Maya was in her arms, her little hands grasping at nothing.

"C'mere, honey." I said and took Maya into my arms. I started to feed her, and the first time she sucked it hurt a little bit. I groaned.

"Does it really hurt that bad?" Lissa asked.

I thought about it a minute. "It's not that bad. I mean, if she's on me all the time, then it hurts. If it's like now, it's when she first starts nursing that stings a little. I don't mind it, though." I shrugged.

At that moment, Adrian walked in, saw what was going on, and walked right back out. Lissa and I burst into laughter. Dimitri had been paying attention to the stove, so he didn't see what happened. He turned and said, "What? Did I do something?" That made us start to laugh even harder.

A loud ringing stopped our laughing. At first, I didn't realize what it was. It had been a while since I had heard a phone ring. The entire time I'd been in this cabin, the landline hadn't rung. It was always Dimitri's cell phone, and it was always when I was in another room.

The reason we had stopped laughing was because the landline ringing was a bad sign. Tatiana had specifically told us that no one would be calling the landline unless something was wrong. She didn't want the phone calls to be traced. She'd told us that if the landline started to ring, it was our job to answer it as soon as possible.

As always, Dimitri stepped into action while Lissa and I stared at each other in shock. Adrian ran into the living room as Dimitri picked up the phone. He walked over to us.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"We don't know yet." I replied. "Lissa, why don't you go get Christian. This can't be good and he doesn't need to be by himself. And besides, if it isn't bad, I want a little hot water for my shower."

Lissa shook her head and ran out of the kitchen with a smile on her face. I heard the sound of the phone hanging up and looked toward the living room. We had been sitting at the bar in the doorway to the kitchen from the living room, so I didn't have to move.

"That was the queen. She said she's sending a team to come get us. We have…well, a situation." Dimitri explained.

I tried to lift one eyebrow up at him, but failed. "What do you mean, 'situation'?"

He walked over to me and took my hands. "I want you to stay calm, okay? I'll explain it once everyone is in here so I won't have to keep explaining it to everyone. Just know that I'm right here beside you no matter what, and that I will do whatever it takes to keep you and Maya safe."

Dimitri was really worrying me. He never talked like that, even when I was in danger. I sat still and thought while we waited for Lissa and Christian to get in here. Dimitri never really acted like this. I mean, the only time he acted even a little like this was when I was in danger. And that meant…that someone he loved more than me was in danger.

I looked to little bundle in my arms. Oh, God. No.

I walked, faster than normal, to Dimitri. He saw me, and realization came into his eyes. He knew that I figured out that Maya was in trouble. He didn't say a word. He just wrapped his arms around Maya and me when I got to him. I kept it together. I would do whatever it took to keep my little girl safe.

I looked up at Dimitri. "Her track record is already worse off than mine."

He shook his head as he chuckled. "Rose, leave it to you to make a situation like this light."

Lissa and Christian ran into the room then. They, also, didn't say a word. They just stood close to each other and looked to Dimitri. Adrian was already looking at him. We were all ready. I was bracing myself for what was about to happen.

"The queen says that there was another reason she sent us away, another reason she didn't want anyone knowing Rose was pregnant. She said that there was a rumor, passed down from leader to leader of the Moroi. She didn't know if it was true or where it came from, no one did. But she also said that she didn't want to take the risk.

"The rumor said that one day a dhampir would conceive a child with another dhampir, which we all know is…well, apparently not impossible, but rare. The child is special. Apparently, the cure to the strigoi burning in the sun is in Maya's veins. She said she doesn't know what makes Maya so special, other than being born to two dhampirs, but it's true.

"The strigoi attack last night now makes sense, and why they wanted Maya. The queen said that it takes just one drop of Maya's blood to allow a strigoi to walk in the daylight. We all know how much of a risk that is. We have to leave and go back to court, the only place we'll be even a little safe." he explained.

I couldn't help looking at my little girl the entire time he was talking. "When will they be here to take us back?" I asked without looking away from Maya.

"She said in about two hours. We all need to start packing our things. Rose, get Maya ready please. I'm going to go tell the guardians outside."

I nodded my head and started walking toward our room before something hit me. "Wait. If there are guardians outside, then why didn't they see the strigoi getting into the house last night? And why didn't they stop them?"

Everyone looked back and forth between each other. At the same time, we all ran to the front door. There was a dead guardian in front of the door outside. I stayed there because I had Maya, but Dimitri and Christian went around the sides of the house.

"Lissa, take Maya. I'll be right back." I told her.

"No, Rose. Let them take care of it. You stay here. Please?" She had on her puppy-dog eyes. It was really hard to resist her when she gave me that look, but I did. I handed her Maya silently, and she took her without another word.

I walked around the right side, the same way Christian went. I wasn't as worried about Dimitri as I was Christian. He was a moroi, and a royal moroi at that. I knew he could set one on fire if he needed to, but it would take a lot out of him.

I came across two more dead guardians before coming around another corner and running into someone. I automatically pushed whoever it was off of me.

"Rose? What are you doing out here? Where's Maya?" Dimitri said, brushing himself off.

I was confused. "Dimitri? Where's Christian?"

"We aren't going to get anywhere asking each other almost the same exact questions. I thought Christian was coming around this way. I thought you were staying in the house with Maya, Lissa, and Adrian. Now, answer me." he demanded.

"Maya is with Lissa and Adrian in the house. I'm a guardian. I couldn't just hide in the house while a moroi went outside to scope it out. If he got hurt, it would be my fault. I went after him this way, but never found him." I explained.

We both shared the same thought: where did Christian go? We nodded to each other and started scoping out the woods around the house. Dimitri went back the way he came and I went back the way I did.

The woods smelled wonderful. I hadn't had fresh air in months, and smelling it made me never want to go inside again. The ground had almost no leaves on it, considering it was July. The only thing I had to worry about stepping on were sticks. It seemed like there were an unusually big amount of sticks on the ground.

Speaking of sticks, I heard one crack about fifteen feet away from me. I couldn't see who it was because the woods were too thick to see through. I crouched and slowly started to make my way towards the sound. I realized how stupid it was to come out here without my stake, but it was too late to go back. If I went back to the house now whatever it was would see me, and if it was a strigoi I would be screwed.

I was three feet away now. I braced myself and parted two of the trees. There was nothing there. I looked around, and saw four pointed sticks stuck in the ground. The points were facing up.

"What the –"

Something shoved me from behind. Luckily, because I was crouching, I was able to roll over the sticks and get up. A strigoi was running towards the house. "Coward!" I yelled and it turned around.

I grabbed one of the sticks and yanked it hard out of the ground. I jumped over the sticks to meet the strigoi halfway. We were now in a dance. I was crouched, he was crouched, and we were walking in circles around each other looking for openings.

I stopped and laughed. He did exactly what I thought he would. Stopped and looked at me in a funny way. I took that opportunity to spring. He was quick; he jumped back just enough for the stick to go into his stomach. As he yelled out in pain, I spun around and kicked the stick. It went further into him and he yelled again, louder this time.

Dimitri came around the corner. Before he could get to us, the strigoi reached forward and grabbed my shoulders. He brought me forward and the stick went into my stomach, too. I let out a shriek. I was so stunned from the pain that I wasn't able to brace myself from his blow. He brought his hands back and shoved me hard.

The next few seconds went by slowly. I could taste metal and salt. I saw Dimitri's mouth open, but I couldn't hear anything. I was flying. For a moment, it felt like I was doing it by myself, even though I knew it was because the strigoi had thrown me. I knew that I would hit the house when he shoved me, but it didn't seem like the wall was ever going to hit me.

Finally, it did. I heard glass shatter. I must have hit a window. Some of it fell on me, and some of it fell around me. I coughed, and blood came out. I knew I was in big trouble. I saw stars for a second, but they went away and everything looked a bit darker than usual. I got up. Something was stinging in my hands, and I figured I must've put my hands in the glass. I didn't care. I had to help Dimitri.

I took a step – more like a stumble – before I coughed again, and more blood came out. I looked down. There was blood all over the bottom left-hand part of my shirt and it was going down my pants leg. I managed to stay on my feet, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to move but a few more feet. I had to make it count.

Dimitri and the strigoi were moving all around, trying to take swipes at each other. I took a step, and managed to not cough. I developed a plan. I just hoped that Dimitri would catch on. I watched them move all around. I had to double over a couple of times, but I always managed to get up again.

The dizziness started to come. I had to do this fast. I felt like I was going to pass out. I coughed once again, and this time a lot of blood came out. It drenched the top of my shirt. For the first time, I considered leaving Dimitri to go to Lissa. I knew that I wouldn't make it, but I could still try. If she didn't heal me in time, I knew that I would die. But it was too late for that. I had to save my soul mate. If I died, he needed to be alive to take care of our child.

_I love you with all my heart. Both of you. _I thought.

I was now behind the strigoi. The stick was still in its stomach. Dimitri hadn't been able to shove it all the way through. I pulled my hand back as far as it would go and shoved the pointed end with all my might. It went straight through my hand. I managed to just let out a little whimper. I knew that if I were to make a sound, it might distract Dimitri and he wouldn't be able to get the strigoi in time.

He caught on. The stick went forward and the strigoi yelled in pain. I was now right up against the strigoi with the stick still in my hand. Dimitri grabbed the other end and pulled it out. I fell backwards. I couldn't see, but I heard a crunch and gurgle. That meant he had succeeded in staking it. He would have to run in the house and get a stake before it woke up and pulled the stick out of its chest.

I felt a tear slip out of my right eye. I could barely see anymore. It got really bright for a moment, and I thought that I was "going into the light", but it turned out that Christian had come around the corner and set the strigoi on fire. Arms went under me and picked me up. I tried to scream, but blood came out again and it just sounded like a gurgle.

"Dim-dim –" I tried to talk, but I couldn't.

Finally, the pain went away. I couldn't feel anything anymore. It was as if I was under water. I couldn't hear anything, I couldn't breathe, and I felt weightless. So this is what it felt like to die.

I knew my eyes were open, but I couldn't see anything. It was pitch black. Sometimes I would see a sparkle here, or a twinkle there, but it would go away as soon as it appeared.

I thought of my beautiful baby girl and my loving soul mate. I loved them more than anything in the world, and it wasn't fair that I got to spend so little time with the both of them. But I guessed I had done my job in this life. I had brought Maya into this world.

I let go of everything, letting that one thought bring me peace.

(Sorry guys! There are supposed to be breaks in the story sometimes, and they haven't been popping up. I didn't realize it until now. I know it must be confusing you. So, from now on I am going to put [BREAK] on here, k?)

"Rose! Roza, please! Wake up! Wake up!" I yelled at her. I didn't understand. Lissa had healed her. She was perfectly fine now. Why wouldn't she wake up?

I could taste the salt from my tears leaking into my mouth. _I would not let her go_! Not like this. I needed her. Maya needed her. Please, please let me be dreaming!

A hand grabbed my shoulder and tried to pull me away from her. "No!" I screamed and shoved them away. I wouldn't leave her. She was going to wake up. Just watch. Any minute, her eyes would open, she would take a breath, and then say some snappy Rose-like thing that wasn't appropriate at all.

"Let's go. Give him some time." someone said. I thought it was Christian.

"No. No, I won't leave her, either. I need her!" Lissa cried. She had burst into tears as soon as she saw me carrying Rose. She had met me halfway and pulled it together enough to heal Rose, but something was wrong.

It went quiet, but I didn't hear any footsteps, so I knew that they hadn't left. Adrian was probably still there, and for once I was grateful. He was taking care of Maya. All I could hear were my own sobs. Every now and then Maya would make a small sound.

I stroked her face. "Roza, please, come back to me. Come back, sweetheart. Don't leave me." I whispered. She did nothing. She didn't breathe, she didn't move. "Rose!" I yelled. "Rose, you listen to me. Lissa is here, and Adrian, and Christian, and…and Maya. They need you. We all need you. Now, come back! Do what you do best, Rose. Fight! Come back to us."

Still nothing. I broke down then. I couldn't even believe the kind of pain I was in. I had never experienced anything like that before. There were no thoughts running through my head. I just cried. I cried like a little school girl. I did this for what felt like forever.

"Dimitri."

Lissa put her hand on my shoulder. I turned into her arms. We cried together. Soon, Adrian and Christian joined us. There were free-flowing tears. The only one not crying was Maya. I reached out for her and Adrian put her in my arms. She opened her little eyes and looked right into mine. She had her mother's eyes.

"I'm never going to let anything happen to you, honey."

[BREAK]

I didn't know what was going on. It felt like one minute I was in a deep-sleep. One where I didn't dream, where I didn't even know I existed. The next minute, I was dreaming. I dreamt of Dimitri. He was sad. He thought I had left him. Silly man. I would never leave him. The thing was that I didn't remember going to sleep. I didn't really remember much of anything except Dimitri.

"Lissa is here…"

Lissa? I knew that name. Who was that? I could see blonde hair and green eyes. A beautiful, tall girl, with pale skin. _Oh_. I knew who that was. My sister. No. She wasn't _really _my sister; she was just like my sister.

"And Adrian, and Christian…"

Hmm. That one was tougher. I knew them both, but…who were they? Vampires. No, moroi. It hit me. They were both royal, and two of my best friends. Adrian. I loved him. Not as much as I love Dimitri, but I loved him still. Christian was with Lissa. He could be annoying at times, but I approved – though I would never tell Lissa that I did.

"And…and Maya."

_My baby._

Where had that come from? My baby? Wait. Yes, I remembered. My baby girl, Maya. There was something about her I was supposed to remember. What was it? Why couldn't I remember anything. What was wrong with me?

A flash of red. The smell of rust. A shatter. Pain.

_I remembered everything._

Suddenly, I felt my body. It didn't hurt. In fact, it felt better than it usually did. My lungs filled with air that it desperately needed. It kind of hurt at first, but once I exhaled and inhaled once more it was better.

Now, I need to open my eyes. I tried. I tried again. It wasn't working.

_Wake up!_

There we go. I could still taste the blood in my mouth, but I knew I could speak. I expected to see Dimitri carrying me. At least, that was the last thing I remembered. But he was holding Maya while everyone else watched. They were all crying.

"I'm never going to let anything happen to you, honey." Dimitri said to Maya.

"You don't have to do it all by yourself." I said. My voice was a little rusty, but it worked. They all turned to look at me faster than I had ever seen a group move. "Whoa. Did you guys practice that move?"

"Rose." Dimitri whispered.

**Whoo! That was some emotional stuff.**

**Send me some reviews (LOTS please =] ) and I will update soon.**

**Send me none, and I will make you wait.**

**Muhuwahahaha!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Just to let you know, I have not abandoned this story! My computer crashed and it…well, pretty much fixed itself, I guess. I have a couple of chapters written and ready to be uploaded, so here you go! Hope that makes up for taking so long!**

We had been in the house for an hour waiting on the guardians to get here to take us to court. I was forced to lay on the couch to rest, even though I felt fine. Dimitri hadn't left my side since I woke up, er, came back to life. He had laid down next to me and explained everything. It was weird to know that I had died and not even realized it at the time.

Maya nursed while we talked, making little sounds every now and then. It felt good to have my little girl wrapped in my arms again. Adrian was pacing back and forth in front of the couch, every now and then stopping to look at us with a painful look on his face. Lissa had offered to take Maya multiple times but I just couldn't let her go.

Christian and Lissa were in the kitchen. I could hear them talking but I couldn't make out the words. Part of the reason why I couldn't make out the words was because one of my ears was pressed up against Dimitri's chest and the other would be covered by his hand every now and then.

"I love you." Dimitri whispered.

I couldn't help but see Adrian stop pacing and go stiff for a moment. I felt so bad whenever something like that happened. I knew how much he loved me, and I loved him, too, but I loved Dimitri more. I knew how badly he wished that Maya was his. I couldn't help but think about how much easier things would be right now if she were.

"I love you more." I replied. Dimitri gave me a look that said he didn't want to start that game right then, and that he loved me more. Little did he know that I wasn't just referring to his loving me. I was referring to loving him more than I loved Adrian.

Dimitri got up and walked over to the coffee table. He picked up the TV remote and said, "I think we should watch something to take our mind off of things." He gave me a small smile as he turned the TV on and laid back down next to me.

Adrian walked as fast as he could out of the room and into the kitchen. I had to look at Maya right then. Something had changed in me. It wasn't like the first time I had died and came back. This time, I realized just how easily everything could be ripped away from me. Adrian was one of the people I didn't want to lose. I knew that it would be hard because I didn't love him the way he wanted me to, and it would take a toll on him. I was just waiting for him to start drinking and smoking again.

We watched the television for half an hour before the phone rang again. This time, Adrian ran to the phone and answered it. Dimitri turned the TV off as Lissa and Christian ran into the room. All of us – except Maya, of course – sat and waited for Adrian to get off the phone. Finally, after what seemed like hours, he did.

"That was my aunt." he said.

Dimitri rolled his eyes as he mumbled, "We knew that." Thankfully, Adrian didn't hear him, but I still elbowed him in the ribs.

Adrian fingered the cord to the phone as he said, "She said that the guardians who were supposed to come get us have gone missing. They were supposed to be here by now, and when she found out they weren't she tried to contact them. She got no answer. We're supposed to stay here tonight. In the morning, she will send a team to come get us."

"We can't just sit here like floating ducks!" Christian yelled.

Dimitri stood up then. I thought he was going to talk some sense into Christian, but he surprised me by agreeing with him. "Christian is right. We have to get out of here and get to town. The strigoi obviously know that we are here, and they will keep coming until they get us. We're are in the middle of the woods, so we are in the perfect position for attack."

"But, Dimitri, we can't go out there. You saw what happened to Rose. She's as good a guardian as you, but she almost died! Think about how hard it will be for two guardians to get three royal moroi and a baby out of here and into town. Besides, we don't even know where town is. We don't know where we are!" Lissa interjected.

"I know where we are." That was Adrian. He had the most serious look I had ever seen him use on his face. "Aunt Tatiana did think that one of us needed to know where we are just in case. It looks like she was right. I can take us into town. I have been sneaking out of the house for months now doing just that. I've made some friends in the town, and I'm sure that if I call them and tell them what's going on, they'll help us."

We all stood in shock looking at Adrian. How could he have known where we were this entire time and not told us? Also, I had been wanting to get out of this damn house since the first week we were here, and he had kept this from me? I saw just how "in love" he was with me.

"Great." Dimitri said. "Christian, I want you to go eat something and drink plenty of water. You will need a lot of energy for the trip. I am going to rely on you to set some strigoi on fire if we run into them. Okay?

"Lissa, start packing a couple of bags. You and Adrian are going to have to wear a couple of backpacks with food and water to keep Rose, Christian, and I replenished. You two will have to take turns holding Maya. Can you do that?" he asked the both of them.

Lissa nodded and took off into her bedroom. I assumed the backpacks were in her room. Adrian didn't nod. He just stood there looking at Dimitri.

"Adrian?" I asked, trying to get him to snap out of it.

"You really want us to do this? Put you and your baby at risk?" Adrian said to me. He then looked at Dimitri and said, "What kind of father are you? Your child is what they are after, and you're just going to take her out there – where they are – to make it easier for them? You don't deserve them!"

Dimitri stepped forward, right in Adrian's face. "Who are you to tell me what kind of father I am? I love my daughter with all my heart. She is one of the most important things in my life. And so is my wife!" he fought back, pulling me to his side. "Face it, Adrian. She chose _me_, and _we _have a child together, not you two."

Adrian's face turned hard as steel. "Fine. Have fun trying to find the town on your own." He turned and walked into the hallway. Dimitri and I stood there staring at the opening to the doorway until we heard a door slam.

I stepped out of Dimitri's arm and gave him a hard look. "Really? Why would you do something like that? Adrian is the only one who knows how to get to the town. We need him. Besides that, you know that Adrian is my _friend _and I care about him. You also know how he feels about me – obviously – and instead of being mature and dealing with it, you decided to act like a child and start a fight about it. There is no way that Adrian and I would ever be together, and even though he doesn't like that fact, he acknowledges it. Unlike you."

"Oh, so _I'm _the one in the wrong here? He stood there and said that I was a bad father, Rose! What was I supposed to do, stand there and take it? I don't think so." he replied.

"You could defend yourself without hurting him like that!" I yelled. I stopped and took a deep breath. "Know what? Forget it. If you want to fight with him, go ahead. I don't care anymore. Just leave me out of it."

I walked over to the basinet, which we had brought into the living room earlier, and put Maya in it. I turned to go into the hallway, but Dimitri stopped me by grabbing my arm. "Roza, I'm sorry." He paused for a second. "I was in the wrong, I know that now. It's just that… I know that it would never happen, but in the back of my mind I worry about you deciding that you don't want me anymore. That you would rather be with Adrian.

"I understand that it's irrational. We have a child together, a child that shouldn't even exist. But by some miracle, we did have a child together. A beautiful baby girl, and I love her just as much as I love you. Roza, I almost lost you once…I won't let it happen again."

I could feel the warmth behind my eyes, but I refused to cry at a time like this. I had been super emotional since I got pregnant, and I guess some of those hormones were still messing with me. I shoved myself into his chest, snuggling into him. I lifted my head up and he met me halfway. We kissed and kissed and kissed until I could no longer feel my body. It was vibrating with passion.

Dimitri felt wonderful. I had never known that I could love another person so much until I met him, and then we had our little girl and I learned how to love someone so much in a different way. We stayed in that embrace for a long time. It was like nothing else existed in the world.

"Hmm!" Someone cleared their throat, and Dimitri and I automatically broke away. We turned around to see Adrian looking at Dimitri. "Look, I don't like you. We both know that. And I meant what I said before, but I think that we should put our differences aside for now to get to town."

While Dimitri was still looking at Adrian, I smiled and mouthed "thank you" to him.

"I think you're right." Dimitri agreed. "Go help Lissa pack the bags, if you don't mind. I'm going to go check on Christian. Rose, wheel Maya with you and get our stakes from the room. We need to leave in the next few minutes."

I nodded and grabbed the side of the basinet. It had wheels attached to the bottom of the legs so that I could move it around with me. I was afraid that Maya would wake up from the movement, but all she did was let out a little sound and went right back into a peaceful sleep.

The sunlight that had come in through the windows as we slept had turned the dead strigoi in our room to ash. The one in the nursery was ash, too. That was a good thing because my stake was in the one in the nursery. I rolled Maya in the room next to the bed and got Dimitri's stake from his side-table. I left the basinet where I could see it from the nursery and went to retrieve my stake.

I decided that I would change Maya's clothes before we left, and grabbed a couple of blankets to keep her warm outside, even though it was summer. I was scared that taking her outside this soon after she was born would make her sick, but we really didn't have any choice. It was either take the chance of Maya getting sick, or take the chance of her getting killed. I would pick getting sick over getting killed any day.

As I was grabbing a couple of diapers, Maya started to cry. I immediately had a flashback of the strigoi looking at her in her basinet, but was relieved when I looked and saw that there was no one else in the room with her. I walked over to the basinet and picked Maya up. She had a dirty diaper.

I put her down on the changing table and started to change her. She didn't like the cold when I took her diaper off, so she cried even harder. "Shush, baby. Momma's here. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."

"Rose!" Dimitri yelled from the living room.

"In here!" I yelled back. He ran into the room and started putting all of Maya's clothes and stuff in a bag. "What's going on?"

"We have to go. Now." he replied. I finished putting Maya's clothes back on her and wrapped her in a blanket. "There are strigoi right outside. Can I ask you a question?"

I picked Maya up and clung her to me. "What?"

"Why is it that you don't know when they are coming anymore?" he asked.

I thought about that for a moment and shrugged my shoulders. I had no idea why I didn't get the nausea anymore. It was strange. I didn't pay it too much attention, but it would be nice to have it in handy for the trip we were about to take.

We were just walking out of the room and into the living room when we heard Lissa scream. It was hard with Maya in my arms, but we both ran as fast as we could to the front door. Lissa was standing in front of the open door, looking down at a burning strigoi. Christian was right outside the door burning up strigois left and right.

Adrian came running right behind us. Out of nowhere, he pushed me out of the way and grabbed Lissa. He yanked her back into the house. "What were you thinking? You could've gotten yourself killed, Lissa. Don't be stupid."

Dimitri and I looked back and forth from each other back to Lissa and Adrian. Adrian saw us and said, "She was planning on going out there so that she could help Christian. She didn't want him getting hurt while she was standing here doing nothing." He pulled her left arm up and we saw the stake that was in her hand.

"Lissa!" I yelled at the same time Dimitri yelled, "Princess!"

Lissa yanked her arm away from Adrian and looked defiant. "I could've done it! Then, we could get information from the one I saved and they could help us get out of here. They could tell us where the strigoi are coming from, that way we would know which direction to watch."

Dimitri shook his head and ran out the door to help Christian out. I handed Maya over to Adrian and walked over to Lissa. "Liss, the problem with that plan is that you haven't been trained in staking. I understand that it looks easy, but it really isn't." I stopped when I noticed that she didn't want to hear any of that. I grabbed her face and made her look at me. "Lissa, we love you. More than you can ever know. We don't want you getting hurt, is all. If something were to happen to you…I don't know what I would do."

The defiant look went away and was replaced with one of affection. "Rose, you are always putting your life on the line for me. We almost lost you earlier tonight! I just wanted to show you that you don't always have to do that for me. I can do it for you, too."

I was about to tell her that it was my job to protect her and put my life in danger for her, but we heard Christian scream outside. "Wait here." I told her. I grabbed the stake and ran out the door. It was brighter than I thought it would be and I had to let my eyes adjust to it. When they did, I figured out why it was so bright. There were two strigoi running around on fire, and one burning on the ground.

I looked over to Christian. He was in a battle stance with a strigoi, and he was sweating a lot. He seemed like he was concentrating really hard, and I figured out what was wrong. He had used a lot of his energy on the other strigoi and now he needed more. When the strigoi had its back to me, I leaped forward and staked it. It went down instantly.

"Christian, get in the house and get some water and food. Let Dimitri and I take care of it for a little while." I said before running over to Dimitri, who was trying to take on two strigoi at once. Where were they all coming from?

I jumped in right beside Dimitri and it felt like old times. "Rose, go back inside!" Dimitri yelled at me when he saw me.

"I'm not leaving you alone out here, comrade." I yelled right back. He knew that I wouldn't change my mind, so we got back to back and starting fighting the strigoi. This time, I was much more lucky.

We wound up fighting five strigoi – not all at once, though – and we took them all down. I got back-handed by one at one point because Maya started crying and I automatically looked toward the front door to make sure she was okay. I knew the right side of my face had already started bruising just by the feel of it.

Dimitri and I backed up to the front door slowly, making sure that no more strigoi came out of the woods. When we were all in the clear, we went inside and locked the door, not that that would keep them out if they wanted to get in bad enough.

I leaned up against a wall in front of the front door. I could see how Christian was exhausted. I looked over to see Dimitri standing there, trying to catch his breath. At the same exact time, we both reached for each other. We stood in an embrace for a long time. It wasn't until we heard Maya let out another cry that we snapped out of it.

We ran into the living room, where the cry came from, and saw that Maya was in Lissa's arms. Lissa was trying to console her, but it wasn't working. Dimitri took Maya and she automatically went quiet. I didn't know what it was about Dimitri, but Maya never cried when she was in his arms. She didn't cry often in my arms, either, but she would every now and then.

"What time is it?" I asked, to no one in particular.

Before anyone got a chance to answer me, the phone rang. Adrian picked it up. A few moments later, he was off the phone and explaining to us what was going on. The queen told Adrian that she had just sent the group of guardians who were coming to get us, and that they would be here in about an hour and a half. They were going to take a jet instead of a car this time.

She had told Adrian that no one is to leave the house except under dire circumstances. Luckily, we caught a break. The next hour and a half went by pretty slowly, but we made it through it. There were no more attacks, which wasn't the only surprising thing. Maya had stayed up instead of going back to sleep in her daddy's arms.

We were all able to finally breathe as we saw the sun coming up. Fifteen minutes after that, a car pulled up, and four guardians got out to help us get into the car with all our stuff. Dimitri gave me Maya's car-seat as we got in the car and I strapped it in. He set her in it and she was asleep again in minutes.

The car ride was quiet. When we got to the jet, we all felt comfortable enough to sleep. That was exactly what I did, and I did in it Dimitri's arms with my baby girl in her car-seat in the seat next to me.

Life seemed calm and wonderful while I slept. On the outside, though, it was anything but.


	11. Chapter 11

** The computer is still crashed =/ Just to let you know, I am writing this on Christmas day. In fact, it is so infected with a Trojan virus that I have to use a shortcut just to get Microsoft Word to open. It really sucks. But – hopefully – my mom will actually get our security system renewed on the first. I finished the previous chapter yesterday night, and hopefully I can get this chapter finished tonight. Enjoy!**

I felt like I was famous, in a way. Dimitri and I weren't allowed out of our room without a horde of guardians with us. We had to keep Maya with us at all times, which meant no time out to ourselves. The queen had decided that we could keep Maya with us because we had protected her during the attack at the house ourselves, but only on the condition that she be with us all the time.

Dimitri was asleep in the bedroom. Maya was in her new crib that the queen had sent over, sleeping. I was sitting in the living room. Instead of watching the TV that I had turned on, I was worrying.

When we got of the jet earlier, a horde of guardians surrounded us. I mean that literally. No one could see us outside of the guardians. I knew that because I couldn't see anyone outside of them. Dimitri had had to crouch in order to not be spotted because he was so tall. Lissa, Christian, and Adrian had their own guardians. I imagined that everyone knew who was in the horde because the other three were easily seen, but they didn't know why we were being so protected.

Dimitri, Maya, and I were brought straight to the queen's quarters. There, she gave us our instructions. We were to get our own room in court. We couldn't leave the room for a month, until Maya was about six weeks old. Dimitri and I would focus on taking care of our daughter and protecting her until we could start training outside. Then, we would train for six weeks straight. Dimitri was to make out our routine.

Tatiana told me that I was already considered a guardian, even without graduating. She would send a tattoo artist in three days to give me my tattoo. I was, of course, assigned to Lissa, and Dimitri was assigned to Christian. We had proved that we could not only take care of ourselves and our baby, but also Christian and Lissa, not to mention Adrian.

I wasn't really worried about any of that. In fact, I was ecstatic. I was going to be the guardian I had always wanted to be. Sure, there were different circumstances, but it didn't matter as long I got to be Lissa's guardian.

No, that didn't worry me at all. What worried me was that the queen had sent word to me thirty minutes ago that my mom would be visiting me. She would be here any minute now. She had no idea that I had had a child. She also didn't know that Dimitri and I were together. Even though we were very open with our relationship for almost a month after the attack, she had never seen us together. There were actually a lot of people who didn't know about Dimitri and I. Lissa had been around court and came back to tell me that a lot of people had asked her about us because they heard a rumor that we were together. They didn't know that the rumor was true.

I got up and drank a glass of water from the kitchen. The queen had stocked the kitchen full of food and baby products for Maya. We also had all the other supplies we would need for Maya: furniture, clothes, bottles, toys, you name it.

It wouldn't be so bad that my mom was coming to visit if I hadn't gained a little weight. Okay, so I had gained about ten pounds from the pregnancy. It was easily noticeable. I was sure that I would work it off with the training Dimitri and I were going to go through. I could've lied to my mom and told her that I was the only one staying in this room, and just made up some lie about why that had put me in this suite with two rooms instead of the rooms dhampirs normally get, if it weren't for the weight.

Maya had yet to sleep in her new room. Dimitri and I couldn't bear to be away from her so soon after the attack. We figured once we were comfortable with her sleeping in another room, we would let her. Until then, she stayed in our room with us.

I put the empty glass that I had drank the water out of in the sink and made my way back into the living room. Of course, as soon as I sat down on the couch to start worrying again, there was a knock at the door. I cringed at the sound. I knew who was on the other side of the door, and it made me want to pretend like I wasn't here.

As I made my way to the door, I seriously considered just letting her knock and knock until she figured that I wasn't home and went away. I knew that that wouldn't happen, though. If I didn't answer the door, she would just wait there until I showed up.

I took a deep breath and opened the door. There stood my mother, Janine Hathaway. She had one hand on her hip, the other posed to knock on the door again. As soon as she saw me, she grabbed me into a bear hug. Needless to say, I didn't expect that reaction.

"Uh, hi, mom." I said, still in her arms.

"Rose, I was so worried about you. No one had heard anything about your trip, I had no way to contact you, and there was a rumor going around that the queen had sent you and Guardian Belikov on an impossible mission. I thought you were dead!" she whispered fiercely in my ear.

I gave my mom a short squeeze – something I had never done before because she never showed me this kind of affection – before breaking out of the hug to look at her. "Mom, I am fine. Yes, we had some difficulties, but we made it. You should've known not to worry about me. I am your daughter, after all."

She gave me a small smile before getting down to business. "Rose, you have some explaining to do."

I put on a fake smile and said, "I-I don't know what you're talking about. I mean, you know I can't tell you anything about our job. It's top secret."

"Oh, cut the crap, Rose." Man, when that woman got down to business, she got down to business. "Like the queen would send _you_, of all people, on a top secret mission. She hates you. Besides, look at you! Do you really expect me to believe that you've been gone for eight months fighting strigoi and doing guardian jobs when you come back bigger than you were when you left? If anything, you should be more fit! And –"

That was the moment my mom realized what was going on. I could see the realization all over her face. I think the thing that did it was saying "eight months" out loud. It would only make sense that I figure out I'm pregnant a month after I had sex, leave for the remaining eight to have the baby, and come back with a little weight remaining from the pregnancy. My mom was anything but stupid.

"Mom, I have to explain something to you. You see, –" But she didn't give me the chance.

"How could you? You just gave up everything you worked so hard for!" she grabbed the bridge of her nose and walked to sit on the couch.

I sat down next to her and said, "Mom, you don't understand. There are…extenuating circumstances."

She looked like she wanted to slap me. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but at that moment the bedroom door opened. I cringed on the inside, silently wishing that Dimitri would change his mind about coming out here for the moment. But, it seemed like Fate was against me today.

My mom turned to see Dimitri standing in the doorway. Luckily, he had some pajamas on instead of what he normally wore to bed: boxers. He took two steps before he saw us sitting on the couch. A sheepish smile appeared on his face as he said, "Uh, hi. How are you, Janine?"

I think what really pissed my mom off was his use of her first name. Whatever the case, her entire face turned red. Dimitri and I both were waiting for the explosion that was about to happen, but it never came. Instead, my mom took a deep breath and snarled, "You have two minutes to explain. Go."

So, I launched into the tale. It was a little hard in the beginning because I didn't want to tell my mom about Dimitri and I having sex, but it had to be done. After I explained that part, it was actually pretty easy to explain the rest. Dimitri didn't move throughout my entire speech, mostly because my mom's eyes never left his face. The only part of my explanation that she looked away from him was when I told her about me dying. I saw the shock on her face, and then she was looking at Dimitri again.

My mom took a deep breath when I finished. She shook her head just a little and whispered, "Well?"

Dimitri and I glanced at each other before looking at my mom again. "Well, what?" I asked.

"Where is my granddaughter?" She didn't really look mad, but she didn't look happy, either. I simply stood up and went into our bedroom. I thought my mom was going to follow me, but she stayed on the couch. Dimitri decided not to follow me into the room.

Sometimes, my little girl would scare me. It seemed like she had some sort of sixth sense. She was still asleep, but when I leaned over to pick her up, she simply opened her eyes. "Maya, honey, how did you sleep?" I didn't really expect an answer from her. I picked her up and looked at her in my arms. "I want you to know that grandma loves you, no matter what. Even when it seems like she doesn't."

With that, I walked back out to my mom. It was like she wasn't going to believe me until she saw Maya, because when I walked out with her, my mom let out a little whimper. That whimper turned to tears as she held her arms out and I gave Maya to her. They stared at each other for a minute or two before my mom said, "Rose, she acts just like you."

Yet again, Dimitri and I shared a look before looking back at my mom. "Huh?"

My mom laughed. "I mean, she acts just like you did as a baby. Very quiet, makes eye contact, and you can just tell that she will be very, very strong. Inside and out."

[BREAK]

The next month went by slowly. And by slowly, I mean glacially. We basically watched TV, took care of Maya, and cuddled. I guessed I was so ready to begin training that the time before I could train felt like forever. Although it was really slow, I did enjoy just spending time with my small family.

My mother would stop by, along with Lissa, Christian, Eddie, Mia, and Tatiana. Eddie and Mia had been shocked when we showed them Maya, but they were excited. Eddie took the news about Maya pretty well, but not the news about Dimitri and I. He was disappointed in how unprofessional we were acting.

Unfortunately, Adrian refused to come see me. He was still stung from his encounter with Dimitri. I was afraid that he was mad at me, too, because he wouldn't even come visit me in my dreams. Lissa said that she would talk to him, but she hadn't seen him since the second week we were here. I figured he was hiding in his room again, drinking his problems away. I tried to act like it didn't bother me, but after the day I had with Adrian in the cabin right before we left had made me miss the old him.

However much I missed Adrian, though, it would never be enough to leave my family. It strange to think that. I had a family now. I knew that I wouldn't give them up for anything in the world. I was prepared to forget about being a guardian to keep my family together. I didn't want Maya growing up like I did: abandoned to the school without a mother or a father. I had never had a father, and I understood why. A lot of dhampirs only had one parent. But I didn't have either.

No, Maya would not grow up like that, and if I had to give up my dream to keep her, I would. If you had asked me a year ago if I would ever give up guarding, I would've laughed in your face. But that all changed as soon as Maya came into this world.

Finally, it was time to go out training again. I knew that it would be tougher than it was before, but I knew that with hard work, I would turn into the guardian I once was. In fact, I had fought strigoi without training for almost a year, and I won. But I knew that I needed the training to get back on track. After all, I had almost died fighting a strigoi by myself.

Dimitri and I got up together at 5:30 for the first time. The sun was just about to go down as we heard a knock at the door. It was Lissa and Christian. The queen was going to assign a moroi to watch Maya as we trained, but they had offered to do it. Lissa said she had wanted to spend more time with her niece – as she viewed her – and Christian wanted to spend all his time with Lissa. They had Eddie and three more guardians I had never met with them. Two of them were filling in for Dimitri and I. Apparently, I would be guarding with Eddie one day, and Dimitri would be guarding with the tall man named Greg. The other two guardians were women – one named Jasmine, who was about my height with black, curly hair, and the other one was named Daphne. She was about two inches taller than me with blonde, straight hair. Both had olive skin.

"We'll be back around noon for lunch, and then we're leaving again at one to train more. I'll fill you in on when we'll be back for good then." Dimitri told Greg, holding Maya in his arms.

"Liss, make sure Maya doesn't run a fever. She hasn't been feeling well lately, and the doctor told us that if her temperature goes over 100 degrees to call her and make an appointment. I told her that you could make an appointment for her and bring her over if that happens." I said.

"I will! Now, go! How are we supposed to babysit if you don't leave? We've got this." she assured me.

I laughed and gave her a hug. "Okay. See you in a bit."

Dimitri and I gave Maya a kiss before we left. She had started to make little noises when she liked something. It wasn't really laughing, but you could tell she was trying to. She did that when we gave her kisses. I looked back at her one more time before we walked out the door.

"I know that you haven't been away from Maya like this since she was born, but she'll be okay, Rose. Now, let's go." Dimitri told me. We kissed, and then made our way to the gym.

As we did, we got a lot of stares. No one knew about Maya who wasn't in our little circle of friends, but people still thought it was weird that we had been there for a month without coming out of our "rooms". They didn't know we shared a room.

We started out running for about an hour. Dimitri ran twelve laps, while I ran eight. I was way more out of shape than he was. Dimitri went out of his way to make sure I kept hydrated, although there was no way I was going to get dehydrated with the amount of water I drank.

After we ran – without stopping, by the way – Dimitri started helping me gain my muscle back. He still had his because he worked out every morning in the cabin. The queen had sent him a set of weights and machines to work out with. I wasn't allowed to use most of the equipment because of the pregnancy, and towards the end he wouldn't let me get anywhere near it because he was afraid I would rip my stomach open. I told him that there was no way that would happen, but he was still paranoid. Men.

We had just under an hour before lunch when an alarm went off. At first, I thought it was a fire alarm, but Dimitri's reaction tipped me off. "Is that…?"

"Yes." he confirmed. We stood there looking at each other for a minute before we ran out of the gym. "I can't believe this is happening." Dimitri said as we ran through the halls.

"Do you think it's because of –?" I didn't even finish because Dimitri was nodding furiously. I, then, started running faster. Dimitri matched his pace with mine. We were sprinting. Finally, we were back at our room. There were two other guardians running toward our room, also.

"Guardian Belikov, we need to get all the moroi in your room to the auditorium!" one yelled.

We burst into the door. Lissa and Christian were clutched to each other, Maya in Lissa's arms. Maya was crying because of the noise. I ran over, grabbed her, and tried to soothe her. It didn't work. Eddie and the other guardians had been at the doors and windows, keeping a lookout.

"We need all guardians outside and all moroi in the auditorium. Quickly, go!" One of the guardians herded everyone out. As I walked out the door, he grabbed my arm and whispered, "You and Dimitri are allowed to go to the auditorium, too." He looked down at Maya as explanation.

I nodded, and we ran with Lissa and Christian to the auditorium. Once there, I gave Maya to Lissa, and Dimitri and I stood at the two different entrances to the auditorium. We had decided on the way there that since we were guardians we might as well guard the doors just in case.

A herd of guardians came into the room, followed by the queen, and then more guardians. She was posted in the back of the room, surrounded by guardians. I was having the hardest time staying away from Maya. I looked over to Dimitri, and he nodded at me. We both ran back over to Maya at the same time.

"I'm sorry, I just can't leave her." I said, to both Lissa and Dimitri. I took her in my arms and held her close to my body.

"Uh, Rose?" Christian said. I looked up and saw that every moroi around us was looking at me and Maya.

I didn't have time for this. "Don't you have anything better to do than look at me? Oh, say like, a strigoi attack?" I snapped.

A hand grasped my shoulder. It was one of the guardians that brought us to court. "The queen needs to speak with you and Guardian Belikov."

Dimitri grabbed my free hand – the one I wasn't holding Maya with – and led me to the queen. It seemed like a death march. Everyone was looking at us as we walked to the queen. Well, our secret was out now. Who knew what they were thinking? Probably that I had gotten knocked up by some moroi and Dimitri had decided to help me raise her.

We were enveloped by other guardians as we met the queen. She held out her hands, and I raised an eyebrow at her. Finally! I had mastered the eyebrow raise!

"Give me the child, Rose. I will keep her safe with me. I can't have them getting her. The strigoi _must not _be able to walk in the sun. It is the only time when we are really safe." Tatiana explained. I trusted that she would keep Maya safe – especially with all the guardians she had – and put Maya in her arms. "As for you two, you are some of the best guardians we have. I want you out there fighting."

Well, maybe we were walking a death march.


	12. Chapter 12

**Okay, so I am trying my hardest to save up some money to get our subscription to Norton Security renewed. I do little odd jobs around the house and my mom gives me money. Not only that, we have a candle making business and the more candles I make, the more money I make. I've almost got enough! So, let's hope I can get it renewed soon so you can read all these chapters!**

I had broken off from the group. We really weren't supposed to do that, and considering the last fight I had with a strigoi by myself, it wasn't a good idea. But I didn't have a choice. It was my job to keep the moroi safe – not to mention Maya – and that meant taking on strigoi by myself.

I was walking through the garden, keeping a lookout for any strigoi. There was an entrance to the auditorium just on the other side of the garden, and I wanted to make sure there were no strigoi trying to get in.

I made it to the end of the garden and rounded the corner of the building to the auditorium door…and ran smack into someone. I automatically went into guardian mode and pushed them away from me.

"Ow. Rose, why did you do that?" Adrian said.

"Adrian? What are you doing out here? Don't you know there is a strigoi attack going on? Come with me, I'll get you out of here." I grabbed his arm, but he wouldn't budge. Instead, he pulled me to him.

"Rose, I've missed you." he whispered. I could smell the alcohol on his breath.

"You're drunk, and now is not the time for this!" I hissed.

He laughed. "The attack is over, Rose. I've been watching the strigoi retreat to the woods, one by one. Now, come here!" He jerked me closer to him. Our bodies were touching. He grabbed my face and pulled it to his. He kissed me, long and hard.

I pulled away and slapped him hard across the face. "How _dare _you kiss me! You know that I am with Dimitri, and that we have a _child _together!"

Adrian put a hand to his cheek and stepped closer. "Rose, you know that if you left him, we could have as many children as we want. We wouldn't have to worry about any of this! Our children would be normal. They wouldn't have blood that the strigoi wanted! I can't stand this anymore. I need you, Rose! I…I love you." He whispered the last part.

I was about to reply when I heard fast footsteps and something grabbed Adrian. I thought it was a strigoi at first, but when it didn't bite him and just started punching him instead, I knew it wasn't. It was Dimitri. He had heard everything. I didn't know if he saw the kiss or not, but Adrian's speech was enough to make him want to beat the crap out of Adrian.

Dimitri pushed Adrian up against a wall and punched him in the face. He went to do it again, but Adrian ducked that time and punched Dimitri in the gut. Dimitri brought his arms down and pounded Adrian's back with two hands. Adrian fell to the ground.

I stood there, shocked and unable to say anything while Adrian grabbed one of Dimitri's legs and pulled it out from under him. They were both on the ground then, and they were rolling over one another. I couldn't tell who was getting the better of the other.

Movement out of the corner of my eye got my attention. Luckily, I had been standing right next to a tree that was blocking me from being seen by the strigoi. It was crouched and sneaking up on Adrian and Dimitri. They were so involved in each other that they didn't even notice. I waited until it was almost on them to strike.

I didn't need any more training to know exactly where and how to stake a strigoi. The stake went clean through its skin, bones, and organs to finally rest in its heart. With a yell, the strigoi went down and was still.

Adrian and Dimitri got up. "You _stay away _from my wife!" Dimitri yelled at Adrian.

"She isn't your _wife_. Just because you have a kid together doesn't mean that she's your wife!" Adrian snarled.

Dimitri smiled. "Oh, but she will be."

Okay, so technically, Dimitri hadn't said that we had plans to get married, but he implied it. That made Adrian's face fall into complete sadness. Devastation, even. I felt bad, but I also felt good hearing Dimitri call me his wife. Adrian turned and went into the auditorium.

Dimitri and I stood there for a moment before he walked over and got down on one knee. I gasped because I was completely speechless.

"I know that this isn't ideal; I mean, we're both a mess because of the battle, but I had planned on doing this tonight. I was going to take you out to dinner, and have a real date, but since the cat is already out of the bag… Well, I've had the ring in my pocket all day, and I would really like it if I could see it on your finger. I'm mumbling now. I'm sorry. I'm just so nervous, and the way this all panned out…"

"Shush." I said. "Just…ask me."

He chuckled and pulled out a little box from his pocket. "Rosemarie Hathaway, I love you more than you could ever know. Ever since I met you, you have captivated me. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"

I felt a tear slip down my cheek. I was holding my breath the entire time, and it felt as if I wouldn't be able to release it now to say yes. Before I could, the alarm went off again, signaling that the battle was over. Dimitri and I laughed as we waited for it to end. When it finally did, I yelled, "Yes! Yes!"

He jumped up off his knee and picked me up. He squeezed me to his body and kissed me all over my neck and face. He put me down, grabbed my left hand, and put the ring on my finger. It wasn't anything huge. In fact, it fit me well, in more ways than one. It didn't have anything on it that would get in my way of fighting strigoi. It was a silver band, that had the exact same marks on it that my stake did.

"It's beautiful." I whispered.

Dimitri grabbed my hand and started leading me back to the garden. "Why don't we go check up on our daughter and acknowledge your engagement ring in better light?"

[BREAK]

I laughed as Dimitri did his impression of a strigoi. He had a permanent angry face on and he was saying things like, "I'm so tough, I always look like I'm smelling something gross." I didn't get to see this side of Dimitri very often, so I was enjoying it.

We were almost to the room, and we were so high on happiness that we almost passed it up. We were still laughing as we opened the door. Lissa and Christian were sitting on the couch. They looked up sharply when we came in. Lissa looked like she was about to cry, and Christian didn't look very happy either. I automatically stopped laughing and started freaking out on the inside.

"Oh my God, what's wrong? What happened?" I shrieked.

Lissa ran into my arms and hugged me hard. She hugged me so hard that I started to see stars. When the stars went away, I saw Dimitri grab Christian's shoulders and say, "Where's Maya?"

Lissa pulled away then to look at the both of us. "Oh, I'm so sorry. No, Maya is okay. She's sleeping in her crib." She pointed at the room.

Dimitri and I ran into the room and went to the crib. There she was, sleeping like a little angel. I let out a sigh of relief and Dimitri grabbed my shoulder and pulled me to his side. He kissed the top of my head and breathed, "She's alright."

We watched her for another minute or two before walking back into the living room. Lissa was in Christian's arms. She was shaking. "What's wrong?" Dimitri asked.

Christian turned his head to look at us, still holding Lissa. "We were worried about you. It's been ten minutes since the alarm went off for the guardians to come back in. They told all of us before we left the auditorium that they were going to take account of the…fatalities and put up a list for us to look at." Lissa sobbed harder when he said "fatalities".

"Oh, no, we're fine." Dimitri replied.

"Better than fine, actually." I added, looking down at my hand.

Lissa peeked over Christian's shoulder before walking over to us. "Are you sure? I mean, what took you so long to get back here?"

Dimitri and I smiled and looked at each other before looking back at them. I held out my left hand. Lissa let out a shriek and grabbed the both of us. After that, we got hugs from the both of them and Christian went to the kitchen to get some champagne we got from my mom after she found out about Maya.

We had a great time celebrating. Maya cried once, and I had to go feed her, but we continued to celebrate even after that. I had two glasses of champagne before someone knocked at our door.

"I'll get it." I said, and went to the door. I opened it to see Adrian. I pushed him and shut the door behind me. "Adrian, what are you doing here?"

"I had to make sure that everyone was okay. Look, I'm sorry about…earlier." His eye was already turning purple. "I don't know why I…did what I did. Anyways, I came by to –"

He stopped talking, and I was about to ask him what it was, when I noticed that he was looking at something hard. I followed his eyes straight down to the ring on my finger. I looked back up to his face, scared of what I would see there, and found him looking back at me with narrowed eyes.

"Adrian –" I was cut off by him saying, "They need Lissa in the infirmary to heal the wounded. I can't do it by myself." Then, he walked way.

I stood there for a moment, stunned. Once the shock wore off, I went back into the living room.

"Who was that?" Dimitri asked.

I knew I had to lie. Dimitri would flip out if he knew Adrian had been here. "It was a guardian." Best to play it safe by saying it was someone he didn't know and not naming anyone so he couldn't find them. "Lissa, they need you in the infirmary. We have some wounded that you need to heal. But promise me that you won't do too much healing."

Lissa promised, and she and Christian left. A few of the guardians in the room left with them, but two stayed to help us protect Maya. I sat down on the couch and Dimitri let me rest my head on his shoulder.

"We got more training than we intended today, huh?" I joked.

I felt his chest bounce as he chuckled. "Yeah, we did." There was a moment of silence before he said, "That was Adrian, wasn't it?"

Nothing ever got past him. "How did you know?"

"Well, I could tell that you were lying when you said that it was a guardian, so I just assumed that it was Adrian, and apparently I was right." he answered.

I looked up at him. "And you aren't mad?"

He shook his head. "As long as he didn't try anything again." I shook my head. "Okay then. I'm going to go check and see if they need any help with the injured. I had meant to do that before we got caught up in our engagement celebration."

He got up and left, while I made my way to the kitchen to get something to eat. We didn't get the chance to eat lunch, and that mixed with the alcohol made me really hungry. I looked through the cabinets for something to eat. I was just about to take down some spaghetti and sauce, when there was a loud crash.

I would regret that next moment for the rest of my life. I stood there in shock, telling myself that I hadn't heard anything, when I knew that I had. I dropped the spaghetti and sauce and ran to the bedroom.

It was as if I was back in the cabin, reliving the first time I had ever really worried about my daughter. A strigoi stood right next to the crib. The only difference from the first time I had walked in to see this was that he was _holding _Maya, instead of just looking at her. I started to run at him, but he saw me and jumped right back out the window he had broken to get in.

"No!" I screamed as I jumped right out the window after him. The jagged glass left in the window scraped my skin, but it didn't faze me at all. I pumped my arms as fast as they would go, and my feet followed suit. I made my way into the trees after the strigoi. Thank God I had forgotten to take my stake out of my shoe after the attack.

It felt like I had ran forever, trailing behind the strigoi. I finally saw how badly I needed to start training again. I couldn't breathe. I was running way faster than I had earlier in the gym. But I wouldn't stop. No matter what, I _had _to get my daughter back.

Why did this keep happening to me? It seemed like my life had been filled with constant danger. On top of it all, the danger seemed to come at the worst of times. Dimitri had _just left _when the strigoi broke into the room and taken Maya. If he had been there, he could have probably caught the strigoi by now. He was much faster than me, and in more shape.

My entire body was on fire. I felt like I could fall at any moment; that my legs would turn to jelly and no longer work. Branches and twigs kept poking at my skin. But luck kicked in for me. I got a massive adrenaline rush, and it helped me to go faster.

The strigoi was only five, maybe six feet in front of me. I only needed a couple of more minutes to catch up to him. I only hoped that the adrenaline would last. At three feet, I pushed myself harder than I ever had before. I felt like I was going to throw up. My stomach was doing flips just knowing that I was about to catch this bastard and get my daughter back.

I reached out and grazed the back of his shirt. I was almost there. I could taste victory.

And then…I tripped.

I went down face first, and tasted the dirt that went in my mouth. Thorns went into my ankles, and I scraped up my hands and knees. I spit the dirt out and looked up. The strigoi was still running away. I tried to get up, but slipped and fell back down. I looked at the strigoi one more time to see that he was pretty far away. I tried to get up again and finally made it. It hurt like hell – because of the scrapes – but I managed.

The strigoi turned right, and I went to do the same, but there were too many trees that way. We had been following a path, and apparently it turned where he was. I followed the path for what seemed like hours, and finally found the turn.

But when I looked down it, I saw nothing but trees and vegetation. "No." I whispered as I ran into the path. I ran and ran, looking all around me as I did. There was _nothing_. I wanted to cry, but I knew that if I started crying, I would totally break down. So, I kept running.

I don't know how long I ran like that. I made some turns when I ran, and I could've been running in circles for all I knew. I tripped two more times, but always made it back on my feet. Finally, I saw an opening in the path. I saw hope in that opening. Hope that it would be where the strigoi had taken my daughter. I knew that it would be hard to get her back if that was the strigoi's hideout, but it didn't matter. I do whatever I had to do to get her back.

I burst through the path…and right into the quad at Court.

I stopped in my tracks. I had been going the complete opposite way. I ran _in a complete circle_. The tears that had been threatening to make their escape finally did. I went down to my knees. My hands covered my face as I sobbed.

I stayed like that for a long time. I knew that I looked like a mess: my hair was tangled, my arms and legs were scratched up, and there was snot coming out of my nose and all down my face. I sat there thinking about what a bad mother I was and what Dimitri would think of me. He would probably leave me.

And then I thought, _Wait a minute. What am I doing? My daughter was just taken by evil creatures who are going to drink her blood so that they can come out in the daytime and hunt moroi every single moment of forever. I can't let that happen. I am Rosemarie Hathaway. I have defeated…well, too many strigoi to count. I have overcome many obstacles that I never thought I would in a million years. Why am I sitting here, crying, and feeling sorry for myself?_

I wiped my face with the back of my hand – and then flicked it because, well…ew – and got to my feet. I could feel the steel reforming inside me. It was time to take action. Although I felt like I was about to pass out from all the running, but it didn't matter. I ran into the building and started making my way to the queen's quarters. I knew that action would be taken faster if I went to her first.

I ran all the way there, getting weird stares from everyone I passed.

"I need to see the queen!" I yelled at the guardian who was stationed at the front of the queen's hallway. You had to sign a sheet when you went to visit the queen, and you had to have clearance from her _and _a guardian to get to her room.

"What is your business with the queen?" he asked me.

"Tell her that my daughter has been taken." I told him. I was practically bouncing, I was so ready to run in her room.

"Your Majesty, Rose Hathaway is here. She says –"

He was cut off by the queen telling him to let me in on the other end of the intercom. He gave me a pat down, and I gave him my stake. When he said it was okay for me to go, I sprinted to her room. I didn't even knock, I just burst through the door.

"Rose? What's going on?" Tatiana said, sitting on her couch, waiting for me.

"It's Maya. A strigoi got a hold of her. I went after him, but I tripped and he got away. I need help." I said as fast as I could. I was glad that Tatiana had practice listening to me talk really fast.

She automatically got up and went to her table. She picked something up and said into it, "Get a group of guardians together. I need at least twenty, maybe thirty. Guardian Hathaway – Rose, not Janine – and Guardian Belikov will be leading them. Hurry!"

And with that, we got ready to go get my little girl.


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey, sorry it's taken me a little while to update. I have been really busy lately. I am officially an editor. I'm about halfway through editing a book that is going to be published. No info on the title or the publishing date as of right now, but I will keep you posted. Well, let's get to it…**

"Rose, get some sleep. We've been at this for three days and you haven't had a wink of sleep." Dimitri said. We were in the back of an SUV, still trying to find Maya.

I was in the middle of the back seat, leaning forward and looking out the windshield. It was true, we had been at this for three days, but I hadn't gotten any sleep in four days. I was extremely tired, but I knew that I couldn't sleep. It wasn't just that my daughter was missing – although that did play a large part in my insomnia – it was also that I kept thinking about what might be happening with her. It had been _three _days. I didn't want to think about it, but there was a part of me that thought she was…dead.

"I can't. You go ahead." I said, without looking at him.

He sighed. "Look, I'll stay up while you sleep, and if something comes up, I'll wake you."

I finally sat back and looked at him. I whispered, "Dimitri, I don't think this is working. I have a plan, but I'm going to need some help."

"Roza, you know that I go along with most of your plans, but I can't go with this one. The guardians know what they're doing. If you go off by yourself, you could get hurt. Or worse." Why did he always have to sound so…reasonable?

"Fine." I said, angry that he wouldn't back me up. I leaned forward and looked through the windshield again. This whole time I had been gathering energy from being angry. If I gave in to my desperate need and worrying, I would crumble apart.

Dimitri scooted closer to me and whispered in my ear, "Sweet, I may have already lost my daughter. I can't risk losing you, too."

"Yeah, me either."

Dimitri and I screamed and jumped forward. The SUV lunged to the right, and then got back on track. We looked behind us to see Lissa looking over the seat at us. "Liss, what are you doing here?" I shrieked.

"You didn't think I could let you go on yet another trip without me, did you? You guys always leave me out of these things. I'm telling you I can help." Something was wrong with her. "Look, here's the thing, I…" Tears started to fall down her face. "I can't stand this! I will _not _stay at court while you put yourselves in danger looking for Maya. I love her, too, and I can help!"

I took a peek into her head. Oh. My. God.

"Lissa! I told you to pay attention to how much you were healing… Oh, forget it." I closed my eyes and started drawing some darkness from her. I felt arms grab me, but I didn't pay too much attention to it.

Suddenly, the arms went away. I couldn't feel the motion of the car anymore. I opened my eyes to see Adrian. I realized that I must've passed out. I hadn't been to sleep in so long, and add taking darkness from Lissa with that, it equals me passing out.

I looked around. We were in a very weird place. Well, I wouldn't really call it a place at all. We were surrounded by darkness, except for a strange fog that went up to my knees. The only other thing there besides Adrian and I was a tree. It was huge, and had what seemed like a million leaves.

"Rose, what's wrong?" Adrian said.

I was immediately taken back to before Maya was born, when I had passed out on the jet. I shook the thought and said, "Nothing, why?"

Adrian looked me up and down. I thought he was just being a pervert until his eyebrows furrowed. "Your…eyes."

Speaking of my eyes, I rolled them. "Adrian, just spit it out."

He looked me right in the eyes. "Fine. I've been waiting forever for you to go to sleep. But you didn't go to sleep, did you? Something happened, and you passed out. What is going on? I mean, look around us. What happened to you?"

"Adrian, you're the one who decides where we go and what we wear. Why are you yelling at me about that?" I snarled. I didn't know why, but suddenly I was really mad at him.

He grabbed my arm, but I shook him off. "Rose, you're eyes are blood red. I let your mind decide where we go, and this is what you dreamt up." Adrian's eyes suddenly went wide. "Oh, God. You were taking darkness from Lissa, weren't you? You took too much and passed out."

"That is none of your business, Adrian. Quit getting on my case, and just tell me what you brought me here for." I was fed up of this.

Adrian walked over to the tree, and ran his hand across it as he walked around it. "I was just worried." he said. "About Maya, that is."

I looked down at the ground. When he'd said Maya's name, I realized that I should be awake right now. "Adrian, can you wake me up?"

He shook his head. "You're the only one who can do that. But, Rose, I gotta tell you that not only do you_ look_ like you need some sleep, but you actually do. Pretty soon, you'll start dreaming while you're awake, you just won't know it. You'll start seeing things. Let…_Dimitri _handle things while you sleep." He'd sneered when he said Dimitri's name.

I walked quickly over to him. I put my hands on his face and made him look at me. "Adrian, listen to me. I am _so _sorry. I know that…all of this is difficult for you. But you have to understand that I love Dimitri. He's the father of my child and the love of my life. What we have is something that I have never felt before, and it's something that I don't fully understand, but I know that he is the one I'm meant to be with."

I'd tried to say it as softly as I could, but the look on his face told me that I hadn't said it soft enough.

"Look, I realize that. Do you really think I'm _that _stupid?" I was going to say no, but he continued talking. "I know that you love Maya and Dimitri more than anything, but does that mean that things have to be this way between us?"

I looked at him like I thought his head was going to explode. I had no idea what he meant by that. "Hey, you're the one who's been making things like this. I've tried to be your friend, Adrian. You don't want to be mine."

He sighed. "Forget it. You aren't getting what I'm saying."

He tried to turn away from me but I grabbed his arms and held him there. "No. You _do not _get to turn away from me right now. What is it you're getting at? I don't understand these riddles you keep giving me. Just spit it out!"

"Fine. You want me to spell it out for you? Well, here you go: I. Don't. Want. To. Be. Friends."

For a minute, I still didn't get what he was talking about. I mean, I had already told him that I loved Dimitri and that nothing would ever happen between him and I. I tried to think things through in my head.

_He said that he understood Dimitri and I were together and that that was how things were going to stay, so he knows I'm not going to be in a relationship with him. He said he doesn't want things to be like they are between us, so that means that he wants to be friends and stop all the fighting and weird stuff going on. But he says that he doesn't want to be friends. What did all of that mean? He wants to be goody-goody with me, without being friends?_

And that was when I got it.

I slapped Adrian hard on the face. After he took a step back, I snarled, "You bastard! Why are you doing this? Adrian, things could be so much easier between the two of us, but you just can't accept things, can you? You want me to cheat on Dimitri with you? You're delusional and sick!"

He narrowed his eyes at me, holding his cheek where I'd slapped it. "Fine then. I guess we can't be friends."

The dream dissolved and I was left in a dreamless sleep.

**[BREAK]**

"Roza? Rose, wake up. We need you." Dimitri said. I could feel him shaking my arm, trying to wake me up.

I opened my eyes and blinked a couple of times. It was dark, which meant that it was nighttime yet again. In some ways that was good. We would be able to find strigoi roaming around in the dark and they could lead us right into their lair. In some ways it was bad. They not only could come out during the night, but they were also at their strongest.

"What's going on?" I asked. "What time is it?"

Lissa peeked her head over the back seat. "We found a building the strigoi are staying in."

I looked to Dimitri for confirmation. He nodded and added, "We've scouted out the place. It seems like there are about four strigoi inside. We figure it won't be too hard to kill three of them and hold a fourth to get information from."

I nodded, sitting up so that I could fully wake up. I was already alert in my mind, but my body said a different thing. To prove that point, I yawned.

"Are you sure you're up to this, Hathaway?" the driver asked me. His name was Holmes, but I hadn't really talked to him much before then. He was a guardian.

I snorted. "Of course I'm up for this. That's my daughter out there. She could be hurt. There is no way I'm staying here while you guys get to do all the work." Like I'd told Dimitri earlier, I'd had a plan. As soon as I got a strigoi, I was going to unleash my ghostly friends to get the information I needed.

"Well, with that settled, let's get going. Belikov, Hathaway, you guys are going to come in through the back as Lissa makes a distraction in the front. We'll be in hiding near Lissa so that when the strigoi come for her we can take them down." He motioned at the other guardian sitting in the passenger's seat. I thought his name was Jon.

"The four guardians in the other SUV," he motioned to the SUV parked in front of us, "will enter in through the front while we're taking the strigoi down. As soon as you hear a foghorn, go in. Remember: our job isn't to kill all the strigoi, it's to get at least one of them captive so that we can get information from them."

I looked at him like he was stupid. "Duh. I'm trying to save my little girl, here."

He shrugged his shoulders and got out of the car. I knew I should've been a little more concerned for Lissa, but at the time I couldn't think about anything else but getting my little girl back. He opened the back of the SUV and grabbed Lissa's hand so that she could get out easier. She gracefully climbed out of the SUV, looking like the princess she was.

Dimitri and I watched as they snuck to the front of the building. We saw the guardians in the SUV in front of us getting out and getting ready to go into the building. "You ready?" Dimitri asked me.

"As I ever will be." I replied automatically.

We snuck out of the car and to the back of the building. There was one door here, but it was steel, and there was no way we'd be able to knock it down if it was locked. It was a good thing there were windows in the back, even if they were really high.

Dimitri and I exchanged a glance before he nodded at me. He cupped his hands so that I could stick one of my feet in it and boosted me up. I latched on to the roof and pulled myself the rest of the way up. From there, I grabbed the latch on the outside of the window - I hadn't ever seen windows with latches on the outside so it took me a minute to work it - and opened it slowly. It didn't make a noise as it opened.

We sat there waiting for our signal. Dimitri was so wound up, he was bouncing back and forth from foot to foot - something I hadn't really ever seen in him before. I knew that he was just as worried about Maya as I was, even though that was really hard to imagine.

Just when I thought something had gone wrong, the foghorn sounded and I bolted into the window. I didn't wait to hear if Dimitri had gotten in before I ran down the hallway I was in and into the nearest room.

There were two guardians in here. One was fighting a strigoi, the other was unconscious on the floor. The strigoi's back was turned to me, and he obviously hadn't heard me come in because he didn't even turn to look. I lunged forward and thrust my stake through his back, all the way to his heart.

He gave a cough that sounded wet and went down. I nodded at the guardian - a woman who I thought was named Belle - and darted out the door again. I ran to the next room. Dimitri was there, but he didn't look like how I thought he would.

He just stood there, staring at a strigoi who was about ten feet from him on the other side of the room. I was about to rush forward and attack it for him when I saw what had stopped him from rushing the strigoi.

It was holding my baby girl in its arms, smiling while he did it.

"You want this?" he asked, evil smile still in place.

I stepped forward. "I swear to God, if you-"

Dimitri put his arm out, stopping me from going any further and cutting off my words. He didn't look at me as he did it, he just looked at the strigoi. "What do you want?"

The strigoi started to pace back and forth, smiling all the while. I wanted to go over there and wipe that stupid smile off his face. "Oh, you know what I want. I want _her _blood."

He was talking about Maya. Her blood had the ability to let him go into the sunlight, and that was something a strigoi wanted more than anything else in the world. It would allow him to hunt constantly, especially if we didn't know he was able to. If the moroi public thought that the strigoi still couldn't come out in the daytime, they wouldn't know to protect themselves.

"Well, that is something you can't have." Dimitri told him, snarling.

The strigoi touched Maya's nose, causing her to cry. The sound of it tore my heart in two. On one hand, I hated the fact that she was crying. It made me feel like she needed my help and I wasn't able to go to her. On the other hand, it pissed me off. I wanted to rip this bloodsucker's head off.

"Oh, I know I can't have it _now_. She hasn't ripened yet. Her blood won't work for another…five years? Yes, about that." the strigoi teased.

I took a step, even though Dimitri was trying to hold me back. "We'll give you anything you want other than her."

His eyes narrowed and looked at me. "Even the Dragomir Princess?"

I gasped. Had this been his plan the entire time? Take Maya before…her blood ripened - as he put it - and then bargain with us for Lissa? Well, if it was, he was in for a big surprise. I knew that what I was about to do wasn't all that smart. I mean, he could drop Maya. But, I thought, I would jump out and catch her before she could hit the ground.

I closed my eyes and focused, counting on Dimitri protecting me if I needed him to. When I heard the strigoi gasp I knew that I had done it.

I opened my eyes to see ghosts walking around us. They went straight for the strigoi, scaring the crap right out of him. He let go of Maya, trying to run as fast as he could around the ghosts, who were trying to hurt him even though they couldn't.

I darted forward, hands out to reach Maya.

I swear my heart stopped beating in that moment. Every part of me was screaming that I was too late. Sure, my hands would catch Maya's feet, but there was no way her head wouldn't hit the ground, probably killing her. If she died, or even got hurt, I would never forgive myself. I was her mother, and it was my duty to take care of her.

Just when I was sure she was going to hit the ground, a hand snaked out and put itself under her head, keeping it from hitting the ground. I looked up from the hand, to its elbow, up to its shoulder, and finally into loving brown eyes.

Dimitri had saved our daughter.

"Come on, Roza. We need to go." he said, handing Maya over to me and corralling me out of the room.

We didn't come across anymore strigoi on the way out of the building. We didn't say anything as we ran as fast as we could to the SUV. The only sound as we ran was Maya's steady crying.

"Go!" Dimitri yelled as we jumped into the SUV. Holmes, Jon, and Lissa had already gotten back in the car since they never went in the building where all the real action was.

Holmes stepped on the gas, leading us and my whole-again family back home.


End file.
